For the Master Sun Ra, Sonny Blount. May 22, 1914 to May 30th, 1993

 

I.

He is sun-bright myth and Cosmic Light

the audaciousness of comets sweeping through the inky abyss

of night,

the Solar Lord as pharoah of magic, mega-sounds, harmonious

with spectacular delights and unbridled flights aboard

the Melanin rocketship bound for the funk planets.

Ja man of Jupiterian wisdom, crowned prince of immortal night: 

Lord Sun-Ra renamed, 

renowned, resplendent in sparkling, sequined satins;

solar disc ablaze like a living Uraeus, working his aural magic

among the tropic myths of reborn Kamities, in the kingdoms

of his liberated soul, in realms of resurgent Negritude, we

celebrate his audacity, his expanded vision of

Possibility; moving beyond plastic parameters

of Anglo blandness, into multidimensional 

space-time continuums, 

restoring the broad-ranged, epic Consciousness of Cosmic Music, 

embodied in a galaxy of master compositions, Alchemical

solos featuring Coltrane and Pharoah, 

Don and Albert Ayler, Ornette Coleman, Sunny Murray, Milford Graves,

Marion Brown and myriad masters embracing

sacred pillars of the Sky Lords, Immortal Mansions of Ra. 

 

II.

He has moved beyond us, riding Shango’s lightning into stellar

parameters; a Moon Lord, changing his coat. 

arrayed in cosmic colors; hanging with Tehuti, embracing azure robes

of Isis, soloing with Bird Diz Miles among expanses of inter-galactic

space ways, riding bursts of super-novas

brighter than a million mushroom bombs. A living Ancestor now

with Larry Neal, Henry Dumas

legendary visionaries embodying all of our

sterling strengths, imaginative flights, volcanic passion, spanning

generations of Captivity and Resistance, deep pain

wild joy—the Cosmic Lord resplendent among us; 

solar obelisk of myth, long-breath solar of God-voice sursing in 

symphonies of light, phoenix flight of bright Bennu, delighting

myriad choruses of angels, Orishas, who

dance upon sunbeams of his extended solos: O Lord of Light,

O Sun Prince transporting our tropic memories to emerald

mountains rising above primordial jungle dawns; 

O Sky Lord roaring a Horus mantra in a dark abyss of Caucasian-

Neanderthal hell;

O Father, Osirian mage waving your pharoanic baton above choruses of 

saxophones, possees of trumpet, bevies of thundering Afrikan drums

shaking the earth like Zulu legions. 

 

III. 

We mourn you when Whirlwinds roar and embrace our Marcus Garvey

rhapsodies above Middle Passage moans;

We mourn you when Midnight glides into our Consciousness wearing

a white gardenia above her

Billie Holiday face; when Sassy Vaughn launches her indigo-velvet

voice upon the mantras of our ecstasies.

We sing you, Father Ra-Osiris, asking that our memories continue 

in your voyages to farthest reaches of the Universe, that they

form a ring around your Solar Disc as

monumental love vibrations; for you are our heart, our elder sage

and parent, our cosmological thrust into parameters of Infinity, 

an epiphany of Cosmic compassion

mounting summits of Divinity, an archetypal surge of Harmony

within temples of Maatic Eternity;

in Pyramids and mythic shadows, in sunbursts and meteor showers, 

we wish you long life in transcendental vistas

amid pristine solos raising the Dead;

We ask that Ra, mounting

His Barque of Millions of Years, welcome His son

into infinite realms of joy, Mansions

of the Cosmic Knight!

 

Notes:

1. Uraeus. A representation of the sacred asp on the headdress of Kemetic (Egyptian) rulers, symbolizing sovereignty.
2. Kamites. From Kamit ot Kemet (meaning the Black Land). The Kamites were the black people of the Black Land.
3. Ra. Ancient Kemetic (Egyptian) for Almighty God, Whose sacred symbol was the sun, as the Light of the Universe.
4. Shango. West Afrikan, Yoruba orisha symbolizing kingship, whose sacred presence was embodied in thunder and lightning bolts.
5. Tehuti. Thoth, Greek. The Kemetic neter who symbolized knowledge, ancient wisdom, mystery, measurement of the heavens, phases of the moon. 
6. Isis. Greek for Auset. The Nile Valley Civilization’s Great Mother, “Queen of Heaven,” “Throne of Kemer,” the queen and co-ruler with King Asar (Osiris, Greek). Humanity’s archetypal Back Madonna. 
7. Larry Neal, Henry “Ankh” Dumas. Two outstanding Afrikan American visionary epic poets, leaders in the 1960’s Black Arts cultural era. 
8. Obelisk. Greek for a monolithic, four sided Egyptian pillar, which tapers into a pyramid, symbolic of pharoanic authority. 
9. Bennu. Kemetic. The original divine bird, which served as an archetype for he later greek bird, the phoenix.
10. Orishas. Divine Beings of the West Afrikan Yorubax, paralleling the Kemetic neters and the Christian/Hebrew/Muslim angels.