Amiri Baraka, formerly LeRoi Jones, died today at the age of 79. Baraka was a poet, a playwright, and a political activist. Rather than write about my feelings towards Baraka or how and why they changed over the years, instead of doing the IMeMine routine, I decided to post one of his poems, saved a lifetime ago when I tore it from the pages of the Village Voice. Re-reading it I fell in love with his work all over again.
For Baraka’s bio, facts, photos, politics, and controversies, Democracy Now is doing a whole hour on him today, and numerous other sources of information abound.
When We’ll Worship Jesus
Amiri Baraka
We’ll worship Jesus
When jesus do
somethin
when jesus blow up
the white house
or blast nixon down
When jesus turn out congress
or bust general motors to
yard bird motors
Jesus we’ll worship jesus
when jesus get down
when jesus get out his yellow lincoln
w/ the built-in cross stain glass
window & box w/black peoples
enemies we’ll worship jesus when
he get bad enough to at least scare
somebody—cops not afraid
of jesus
pushers not afraid
of jesus, capitalists racists
imperialists not afraid
of jesus shit they makin money
off jesus.
We’ll worship jesus when mao
do, when toure does
when the cross replaces Nkrumah’s
star
jesus need to hurt some a our
enemies then we’ll check him
out, all that screaming and hollering
& Wallering and manking talkin bout
jesus, jesus in a red
check velvet vine & 8 in. heels
jesus pinky finger
got a goose egg ruby
which actual bleeds
jesus at the apollo
doin splits and helpin
nixon trick niggers
jesus w/his one-eyed self
tongue kissing johnny carson
up the behind
jesus need to be busted
jesus need to be thrown down and whipped
till something better happen
jesus aint did nothin for us
but kept us turned toward
the sky (him and his boy allah
too, need to be checked
out!)
we’ll worship jesus
when he get a boat load of AR-47’s
and some dynamite
and blow up abernathy robotin
for gulf
jesus need to be busted
we aint gonna worshp nobody
but niggers getting up off
the ground
not gon worship jesus
unless he just a tricked up
nigger somebody named
outside his race
need to worship you self fo
you worship jesus
need to bust jesus (& Check
out his spooky brother
allah while you heavy
on the case)
cause we aint gon worship jesus
we aint gon worship
jesus
we aint gon worship
jesus
not till he do something
not til he help us
not till the world get changed
and he aint, Jesus aint, he cant change the world
we can change the world
we can struggle against the forces of backwardness
we can change the world
we can struggle against our selves, our slowness,
our connection with the oppressor,
the very cultural aggression which binds us to our enemies
as their slaves.
We can change the world
we aint gonna worship jesus cause jesus don’t exist
Xcept in song and story except in ritual and dance, except in
slum stained
tears or trillion dollar opulence stretching back in history, the history
of the oppression of the human mind
We worship the strength in us
We worship our selves
We worship the light in us
We worship the warmth in us
We worship the world
We worship the love in us
We worship our selves
We worship nature
We worship ourselves
We worshp the life in us, and science, and knowledge, and transformation
of the visible world
But we aint gonna worship no jesus
We aint gonna legitimize the witches and devils
the spooks and hobgoblins
the sensuous lies of the rulers to keep us
chained to fantasy and illusion
Sing about life, not jesus
Sing about revoltuion, not no jesus
Stop singing about jesus,
Sing about creation, our creation, the life of the world and fantastic
nature how we struggle to transform it, but don’t victmize our selves by distorting the world
Stop moanin about jesus, stop sweatin and cryin and stompin and dyin for jesus
Unless thats the name of the army we buildiing to force the land finally to change hands.
And lets not call that jesus, get a quick consensus on that.
Lets damn sure not call that black fire muscle no inivisible
psychic dungeon
no gentle vision strait jacket, lets call that peoples army, or wapenduzi or simba
wachanga, but we not gon call it jesus and not gon worship jesus
Throw jesus out yr mind. Build the new world out of reality, and new vision
We come to find out what there is of the world
to understand what there is here in the world!
To visualize change, and force it
We worship revolution.
Dirty Laundry 
Like you, Marcy, I’ve got mixed feelings about him. He wrote magnificently sometimes, as the poem you present demonstrates, and other times, well, not so much. His book “Blues People,” first published in 1963, is still one of the finest studies of blues and jazz ever written. I first read it in high school in the early 1970s and it continues to influence how I hear and listen to music.
Jesus was revolutionary. The worship of him is not.
Good distinction, Susan!