No Nothin’! GOD!
You’re a No Nothin’!
baptize
with fire
water
blood
You’re a No Nothin’!
brand you
drown you
rape you
stab you
You’re a No Nothin’!
drag you out
dress you up
white sheet robed
walk up, spit
You’re a No Nothin’!
plunge a knife
into your chest
blood ooze out
now squirting red
You’re a No Nothin’!
dead
dove appears
above your head
knife falls out
bleeding stops
stain of blood
at first a mess
forms a cross
red crucifix
baptized by Spirit
love of Jesus
loudly you say
In The Beginning
Written for the Sunday before Martin Luther King Day in honor of Martin Luther King and his work.
Read on MLK day 2004 at the Church of Our Saviour, Arlington, Massachusetts as an alternate recitation to Duke Ellington’s “In the Beginning God” from his Sacred Concert. Scriptural inspiration from Genesis 1:1, Isaiah 43:2 and Luke 3:21-22.
© Jamie Coats January 2004
No Word of God
“I am so happy,” said the Devil.
“People rarely use the word “Evil.”
Or words of God so beautiful,
Crafted to be so prayerful.”
“That hateful wonder, the holy Liturgy,
Vanishes as people talk on their own authority.
Linguistic worship reduced to Sunday,
They chuck it out every weekday.”
“Who’s left speaking? My favorite preachers,
Who hammer words, not like teachers.
Mashing God’s meaning, in their judgmental way,
Driving people from sacred texts away.”
“Who responds? Reasoning voices,
With no hint of scripture” the Devil rejoices.
“I love their godless word parade,
Raising Reason as God to masquerade.”
“In the beginning was the Word, the Word was God.
No Words of God, In the Ending was the Void!
Don’t try mentioning the Light from Light, Jesus.
People will think you quite ridiculous.”
“God commanded us not to speak of him in vain.
He’d better worry now no one even mentions his name!
Now don’t call me the “Devil” or “Beelzebub,” just “No Good,”
We don’t want any inspired language in the neighborhood.”
© Jamie Coats February 2004
Still Hope at Pigeon Cove
Still
I sit at dusk
Quiet, with a sea view
Half sky
Quarter sea
Quarter grass
And me
My hands cupped
Waiting to receive
At dawn the sun arose
The love within, Emma
Emmanuel for some
Released a dove
Looking for a cove
All day it comes
Across the half sky
Across the quarter blue
Across the quarter green
Arriving to alight
On my left shoulder
Its feet prickle my skin
With a slight flutter
Down my arm
It nestles into my hands
So fluffy
So warm, so light
It coos
My partner cups her hand
Gently under my right
So slowly I slide it out
Our white pigeon
Still comfy
Let’s us know
It is time to sleep
And we will awake, with
Hope
Theme for 2013
Looking for Emmanuel – post Newton
In the late 90s I volunteered one morning a week for one class in a middle school in Mattapan in Boston at a time of many youth-on-youth shootings. I asked my sixth grade class how we could make the class safe. Quickly ideas were shouted out: “armed guards, metal detectors, bars on the windows.” Then a boy, one of the smallest, put his hand up. He said, “Then we will be in a prison,” he paused and said, “We could try to get along.” A murmur of assent went round the class.
Our Newborn Joy
A word, softly spoken
Impregnates our busy lives
Swelling the recollection
We are already loved.
A prayer for Advent
Jamie Coats December 2012
Bean & Leaf
She walked into the bar and saw him immediately, the Greenman. His face was made of leaves, he wore a summer suit and a floral Liberty print tie displaying a riot of flowers tastefully tumbling down his front. She sat next to him. She was wearing a small silk pouch around her neck that matched the color of her dress. The pouch hung over her heart. She took the pouch off and put it onto the bar between them. She opened it, revealing a white lined interior holding a variety of beans. He pointed at one and she smiled. He looked up and his eyes caught the bar tender’s attention. He ordered and the bar tender produced what looked like a pint of Guinness for him and a bottle of mineral water for her. His pint was actually filled with deep, rich, dark earth. He pushed his finger into the earth making a hole, she put the bean in, closed the hole and then she poured a little of her fresh spring water into the pint and it soaked in. The seed in the caring earth felt the water ignite its inner strength of life, sprouted and soon a tender new leaf unfurled … to their delight and to everyone else at the bar’s surprise.
The Green Man and Pegasus
At a bar met the Green Man
Who asks, “Like a word?”
“I am looking for Emmanuel,
Emma for short.”
“Go to my barn, take some lessons,
I’ve just the horse for you, Pegasus.
What a winged horse,
Asked for a barn right on the cliff edge
So he’d be able to leap straight into the air.
No, I said, erosion happens.
You’ll have a barn way back from the edge.
From the barn you can still see the sea.
I built the barn from the sacred tree,
The one on which he died.
At the barn take Pegasus out of his stall.
Groom his winter coat so fine,
Put some fluff in a can.
Pick up his feet, pick out his hooves,
Open his mouth, put in the bit
Bend his ears forward, reins over his head.
Saddle him up, check the girth again and again.
You don’t want to fall off up in the air.
Take time to be responsible,
Ride him around the paddock
Until he’s done his business.
I want no defecating from on high.
Then ride off the cliff edge,
To people’s surprise you’ll not fall to your death
But rise into the sky.
Now before you go
Come back to the bar.
Ask my friends each for a word,
A caterpillar one that crawls around inside
Eating up their lives.
Put the words in your can,
Shut the lid all cozy
They’ll turn into chrysali.
Then on Pegasus take off,
Straight into the storm sky
Ride ‘till the sun appears.
Then open that can
And butterflies will pour out
Leaving a rainbow trail
Arching color across the sky.
On your return tell your daughter
If she has a nightmare
She can snuck into his stall
And curl up under his wing.
You’ll find Emma, you’ll find her
You’ll find home, you’ll find us all, partner.
Know what grows, dies, returns.
Seasons and heartbeats understand.
Here’s to bars and barns
Places for you to be a Green Man.”
Theme for 2012
Jamie Coats February 2012
Glimpse of Light
A door slams, locking us in the dark.
The handle spins uselessly in our grasp.
We see a tiny cross-shaped eye hole,
We catch a glimpse of light.
Keep looking, light dissolves the door,
We will step from darkness into light.
Stations of the Christ – 8 Visions – Index
The Stations of the Christ is a transcription of eight visionary experiences that I had during Lent 2004.
Vision 2: In Boots, Behold God!
Vision 7: Resurrection, Easter Egg
Beautiful Reminders
The love of God
Is like a butterfly
That reminds us
That we are as
Beautiful as flowers
And in our darkest heart
Is the love giving
Nectar of life.
I am part of a team working with the Brothers of the Society of Saint the Evangelist at their Monastery in Cambridge, Massachusetts on communication. One catch phrase for our team is “Let’s send a butterfly.” A butterfly is a postcard, a booklet, a bookmark, a photograph that is so beautiful that people will put it on their mantelpiece, display it in their home. The Brothers have a wonderful eye for beauty and simplicity and profound way for reminding people that they are loved by God.
Using on demand printer services like Lulu.com, Digitallizard.com, Blurb.com and photo services like Snapfish or Shutterfly it is now possible to produce small print runs of stunning prayer cards, booklets, photo-booklets, and calendars.
Please think how you and your church can send someone a butterfly that reminds them that they are beautiful and loved by God.