Askia Touré

Askia Touré
 
PHARAOH ALCHEMY/LEGEND 1: The Master Returns!
[Atlanta Invocation]
 
He calls upon
            Apocalypse, earthquakes,
tornadoes as companions
to twilight passion;
a Voice radiant, sublime,
magical—part Night, part
firestorm—permits, spirits
to chant vivid dirges in
Georgia forests of
Ubiquitous pines…
Master Pharaoh Sanders
Cast his golden net, and
Captured a Star!
            Thousands witnessed this
Miracle:
it was a rainy Saturday—I was there,
as amazed as
the others:
I saw
a Star’s ruby core
pulsing in shadows
of visionary Alchemy,
sonic Apocalypse, aural
Paradise, metaphysical Harmonics,
Maatic Glissandos, architectural
Vibrato, exploding demonics,
Releasing
            Healing auras amid
Djimbe juju, percussive
Rainbows, solar/lunar
Eclipses, scarlet spirits,
Holy Ghosts
Dancing, prancing,
Soaring
            Among
                        Alienated strangers,
Rabid racists,
Battered wives,
Tarnished rebels,
Crushed dreamers,
Lost
Romantics, junkies
Conmen, cynics,
and others
among
            the “Lonely Crowd”
wandering Amerika;
instantly Healed,
            Transformed,
                        Realized
in a Dialectical Exorcism
measured as love.
 
 
 
Askia Touré, poet, editor, political activist, worked closely with Amiri Baraka, Larry Neal & Sonia Sanchez in forming the 1960s Black Arts Cultural Revolution. He is a former member of SNCC, RAM, and a BAM co-founder. He co-wrote the SNCC “Black Power Position Paper” which appeared in the NY Times in 1966. He was a feature writer for Harlem’s Liberator Magazine, an editor of “Black Dialogue,” and Editor-at-Large of the “Journal of Black Poetry.” He is author of eight books, and winner of the 1989 American Book Award, for “From the Pyramids to the Projects,” and his Nile valley epic, “Dawn-Song!” won the 2003 Stephen Henderson Poetry Award from the American Literature Assoc. He lives in Boston & is a member of the African-American Master-Artist-in-Residency Program at Northeastern Univ. He can be reached at: askia38@yahoo.com, and also on Facebook.