SUN RA - Quotes and Poetry

It was in the early 1980s when I got my first Sun Ra records. From 1986 to 1992 I had the pleasure to attended four of his extraordinary performances, including the 1986 concert in East Berlin. But he was not only one of the greatest band leaders in the history of jazz, he also had some very important things to say.

I'm not a minister, I'm not a philosopher, I'm not a politician, I'm in another category.

Music is a language, you see, a universal language.

The world is in such a bad condition that if they don't find what you call a redeemer, every man, woman and child on this planet will be eliminated.

Now, this sickness and this death and all these things that happen here on earth are not necessary. It's totally out of harmony, coordination precision and discipline.

They don't know things and they're not trying to find out things except for money and sex and dope and religion and politics and all those things.

I'm dealing with the potential of people. I'm dealing with what they should be and what I see in them that isn't there but should be there.

It's such a tragedy that man endures in killing his brother and his own kind, putting him in jail and insane asylums, letting him lay out in the street.

It's totally wrong but people are self destruct. No one has to kill them.

In tomorrow's world, men will not need artificial instruments such as jets and space ships. In the world of tomorrow, the new man will 'think' the place he wants to go, then his mind will take him there. (1956)

I always say it's not my Arkestra, it belongs to some other force which wants certain things, to reach people.

I'm dealing with the potential of people. I'm dealing with what they should be and what I see in them that isn't there but should be there.

The Endless Realm

I have nothing
Nothing!
How really is I am . . . .
Nothing is mine.
How treasured rich am I
I have the treasure of nothing . . . .
Vast endless nothing
That branches out into realm beyond realm.
This and these are mine
Together they are nothing.

The idea of nothing
The notion of nations
Nation . . . . notion

I have the treasure of nothing
All of it is mine.
He who would build a magic world
Must seek my exchange bar
In order to partake of my endless
Treasure from my endless realm of nothing.

The Black Rays Race

See how the black rays of the black race
Have touched the immeasurable wisdom
And therefore the unknown quantity
See how they are not understood
Because as they are is not understood
And as what they know is what they are
See the unlimited freedom of the black rays.

Cosmic Equation

Then another tomorrow
They never told me of
Came with the abruptness of a fiery dawn
And spoke of Cosmic Equations:
The equations of sight-similarity
The equations of sound-similarity
Subtle Living Equations
Clear only to those
Who wish to be attuned
To the vibrations of the Outer Cosmic Worlds.
Subtle living equations
of the outer-realms
Dear only to those
Who fervently wish the greater life