Prayer before Birth by Louis MacNeice
Reflection by Emily Hills
Emily Hills
I must admit I have not been an avid reader of poetry in my life. It was Sarah though, my elder sister who loved poetry, as well as all literature, who influenced me even when she despaired of my limited use of the English language.
In order to remember and commemorate the life of Sarah (1971-2021) mother, wife and journalist, who died from Breast Cancer on Easter Monday last year, I have chosen a poem that she loved, written by the Irish poet and playwright Louis MacNeice (1907-1963) part of the Auden Group. I choose it because the poem prays for guidance and protection from the chaos of the world today.
The poem is told by an unborn child who comes from a world of safety, inside the warmth of the womb. The poem inspires me to remember the importance of the first 1001 days and the need to nurture and support each baby and their family as they arrive in this unsettling and unpredictable world we live in. It reminds me that it is such an honour to meet a family for the very first time and that our words and actions matter. But mostly I choose it because I miss my big sister.
Prayer before Birth
By Louis MacNeice
I am not yet born; O hear me.
Let not the bloodsucking bat or the rat or the stoat or the
club-footed ghoul come near me.
I am not yet born, console me.
I fear that the human race may with tall walls wall me,
with strong drugs dope me, with wise lies lure me,
on black racks rack me, in blood-baths roll me.
I am not yet born; provide me
With water to dandle me, grass to grow for me, trees to talk
to me, sky to sing to me, birds and a white light
in the back of my mind to guide me.
I am not yet born; forgive me
For the sins that in me the world shall commit, my words
when they speak to me, my thoughts when they think me,
my treason engendered by traitors beyond me,
my life when they murder by means of my
hands, my death when they live me.
I am not yet born; rehearse me
In the parts I must play and the cues I must take when
old men lecture me, bureaucrats hector me, mountains
frown at me, lovers laugh at me, the white
waves call me to folly and the desert calls
me to doom and the beggar refuses
my gift and my children curse me.
I am not yet born; O hear me,
Let not the man who is beast or who thinks he is God
come near me.
I am not yet born; O fill me
With strength against those who would freeze my
humanity, would dragoon me into a lethal automaton,
would make me a cog in a machine, a thing with
one face, a thing, and against all those
who would dissipate my entirety, would
blow me like thistledown hither and
thither or hither and thither
like water held in the
hands would spill me.
Let them not make me a stone and let them not spill me.
Otherwise kill me.
Emily also kindly shared her favorite poem by Emile Victor Riu (1887-1972), which she says “perhaps reflects on my own take on life”.
The Hippopotamus’s Birthday
By Emile Victor Rieu (1887-1972)
He has opened all his parcels
But the largest and the last;
His hopes are at their highest
And his heart is beating fast.
O Happy Hippopotamus,
What lovely gift is here?
O Little Hippopotamus,
The sorrows of the small!
He dropped two tears to mingle
With the flowing Senegal;
And the “Thank you” that he uttered
Was the saddest ever heard
In the Senegambian jungle
From the mouth of beast or bird.
Emily is a Clinical Specialist Neonatal Occupational Therapist at Royal Free London NHS foundation Trust, where she leads on developmental care, neurobehavioral, neurodevelopmental and sensory assessment and interventions, including follow-up after discharge.
Emily is a certified neonatal therapist (CNT). She has completed her MSc in Advanced Neonatal Studies at Southampton University. Emily is NIDCAP certified and lectures on The Family and Infant Neurodevelopmental Education (FINE) programme in the UK. Emily has completed Neonatal Touch and massage certification (NTMC) and has completed the advanced course in The Prechtl General Movement Assessment.
She is a senior Brazelton trainer and is certified to teach on the Newborn behavioural Observation (NBO) and Neonatal Behavioural Assessment Scale (NBAS).
Emily is co-author and co-founder of Sensory Beginnings Ltd and is an Advanced Practitioner in Sensory Integration (SI).