Name It and Claim It (Annotated Version)

Baptized out of the window
You floated down, down, down, down ¹
The hand that barely held you
Was your own
It couldn’t lift you up
From underneath ²
Even as you repeated to yourself,
“Go farther, farther on—
Until you’re shown
The holy
Experience” ³

A wicked and adulterous generation
Looks for a sign ⁴
Yours was Adam ⁵
Transfixed and drowning in the sky
Mouth blanketed by curiosity ⁶
Until he made his true confession,
The which you only heard
once he was reborn, crafted into a song: ⁷
Bereft of whistle cries and moans,
Bereft of afterbirth and danger—
With no knowledge of his mother ⁸

I was pleased with you
You didn’t shrink back ⁹
We sat in the cave
As he was passing by
Faces glowing, we waited ¹⁰
I heard you say,
“What has happened
to him?” ¹¹
So I placed my heavy earrings
Softly at your feet—but it was already built
You built it for me
We built it together
but only you
danced ¹²

Baptized out of the window
I felt the cloudy embrace,
The fog that hides all hidden places
Start to dissipate
from the back of my face ¹³
The shaped silence stood to call me,
Knew my second secret name ¹⁴
He whispered to me, took his aim and tried to claim me ¹⁵

I will not wait a second time
Upon this Adam passing by ¹⁶
For whatever he has loosed or bound
With his drowned voice, ¹⁷
He cannot tell the sick,
“Be healed” ¹⁸
He cannot call the dead:
“Come forth” ¹⁹
With his withered hand, ²⁰
Not fit to plow, ²¹
He cannot work the land—
He has no bread to break ²²
I lifted up my heel against him ²³
And cursed him for his broken promise

 

Title
Of course, “name it and claim it” is the discredited idea that you can just believe anything hard enough, and declare it, to make it manifest. It’s also an allusion to Jesus calling his sheep by name.

1. The action of baptism is used to frame this poem; it should be clear that this stanza isn’t describing a normal baptism.
2. Again, the forms of baptism are being referenced—specifically, the part of the ceremony when the person being baptized is lifted out of the water.
3. This is an adulteration of the phrase “In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”
4. Reference to Matthew 16:4 and 1 Corinthians 1:22 
5. Adam ate the apple that gave him knowledge of good and evil (which God had instructed him not to do).
6. The Adam character is still “under water” in the baptism ceremony. It could also be inferred that he is being waterboarded. 
7. As baptism symbolizes the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, this indicates that Adam has come up, “raised to walk in newness of life.” His report of the “holy experience,” in this case, is not a primary retelling. Rather, he’s had time to process and craft his version of it.
8. The “you” of the poem isn’t getting the full story from Adam, nor does Adam know where this experience comes from.
9. Hebrews 10:38-39
10. Reference to Moses on Mount Sinai (Exodus 33:22-23 and 34:29-30)
11. Exodus 32:1
12. References to Exodus 32:2-6 
13. Indicates new knowledge being revealed during the baptism ceremony
14. Revelation 2:17; also a mixed allusion to the name given at first communion and at a christening ceremony
15. Reference to Jesus calling his sheep
16. See footnote 10
17. Adam’s voice is calling from under the water, so to speak. Reference Matthew 18:18
18. Matthew 8:3
19. See the story of Lazarus
20. This echoes the hand from the first stanza, which is trying to bring someone up out of the water—as well as Moses’ leprous hand (given to him as a sign to the Hebrews).
21. Luke 9:62
22. Because this Adam has no power and has done no real work—or work of any worth—he has nothing to show for it. See Genesis 3:19. 
23. John 13:18; Adam is considered a traitor.