Hope is Dancing … Esperanza! A nursery rhyme for Hope.

Jane and Simon Berry were unable to be with us at the christening (busy in Zambia with their charity ColaLife), but their wonderfully dashing son Luke read us a poem that Jane had written for Hope. Jane wrote it while she was in Africa following my pregnancy through this blog, it is quite the most special present Hope (or I) have been given. She read it to me in person a few weeks ago when we met up during their visit to England, and I was moved to tears (as I am every time I read it). I was dabbing at my eyes again during the Christening as were half the congregation.

Jane Berry with her lovely Luke … and Hope just after she read us the poem back in April, a very happy (and emotional) afternoon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jane’s beautiful poem captures our journey from IVF in Spain through all the ups and downs and traumas of The Spaniard not moving inside me in December, the seemingly endless days in the blue curtained cubicle in the hospital, the love and positive support of friends, and then the Cesarean and Hope’s arrival, all the joy, fear and emotion of a remarkable time. Esperanza … we are all dancing!

Thank you Jane, so much and thank you Luke… I had intended for Hope to be wearing her little red shoes for her Baptism but I forgot to put them on at the last minute so they danced in my handbag!

Anyway – enough of my waffling, here is a very special poem.

A Nursery Rhyme for Hope

E is for Esperanza.
A glance into a future,
advancing to an answer,
a chance to move us onward.
Esperanza.

S must be Spain.
A place that gives a name
to a tiny shard of hope or pain
to conjure a refrain: The Spaniard.

P is for Praying.
Daily saying
We believe you will be staying
Little Spaniard.

E is Emergency.
Blue rooms, blue moods, blue lights.
And Excellence of care through
the long days and nights.

R is for Ramblings.
Mush-brained, sane or insane:
a worry, once explained
is bound to ease the pain.

A is for Amigos.
A mighty ring of friends who tell:
We are here, we hear, we send
you love, all will end well.

N stands for Nine.
Nine months, nine lives, nine
ups and downs and anxious times,
waiting till you are mine.

Z comes at the end.
Frazzled.
Unzipped and zonked and zapped,
Dizzy, but now you’re here: bedazzled.

A is a beginning, a glance into a future.
To all our prayers, an Answer:
Hope is dancing.
Esperanza.

Jane Berry, 2012
For Ellie and Roy and Hope, with love.

Hope IS Dancing … ESPERANZA!

Advertisement