Comforting Message: A Prayer from the NICU

Tara, a former NICU parent contacted me after reading the NICU Parent Support Blog and asked if I would be interested in sharing the prayer poem that she wrote about the N.I.C.U.

She wrote the poem for a friend when her friend's child was in the NICU several years ago. She had already lived through her own experience of having twins in the NICU.

A Prayer from the N.I.C.U.
by Tara Roper

Dear God,
I have a request to make.
Just a moment of your time it will take.
You see, my parents, are heartbroken and sad,
and they have prayed to you with all they had.

Could you just hug them and remind them you care,
as they are wishing I was at home, not here.
This time is confusing, unlike how they pictured it would be,
But I want them to know that you take care of me.

Although I am sleeping in this little bed,
and I am often too tired to raise my little head,
please remind them that I know they did their very best.
And that at night I am protected as I sleep upon your chest.

They think I am so lonely when they are away,
and if I could tell them, I would say

I know this is hard, and God understands,
But just know He has never let go of my hand.
He is always with me, like He is with you,
and all this has a purpose too.

And God, while I am in this temporary N.I.C.U. home,
I just want them to know I have never been alone.

Source: Roper T. A Prayer for the N.I.C.U. FaithWriters.com. Reprinted with Permission.

About the Author
Tara Roper is a 34 year old mom of three in the Atlanta area. Her daughter Caroline is five years old , and her twins, Maggie and Jacob are almost three years old. She and her husband John have lived in the Atlanta area and Boston area in the last ten years. Tara has been the editor of local parenting newsletters and writes on Faithwriters.com. Tara is the Assistant Coordinator for The Women's League Inc. for Northstar Church. Tara is currently taking time off from being a special education teacher to be at home with her children.

You can contact her through Faith Writers.

More Prayers

Dyer KA. 2008. The Preemie Prayer. NICU Parent Support Blog.
Dyer KA. 2007. Creatively Coping: Write a Prayer Poem. NICU Parent Support Blog.
Dyer KA. 2007. Creatively Coping: Preemie Prayer Pockets. NICU Parent Support Blog.
Dyer KA. 2007. Preemie Prayer for Sylas Christopher, the Remaining Morrison Sextuplet & Siblings. NICU Parent Support Blog.

Image: Aparecida B. Souza. Little Angel. Royalty Free Use.

Creatively Coping: Write a Prayer Poem

While I was in medical school, residency and clinical practice I wrote and used poetry to help friends, family, patients and colleagues deal with the pain from losses and aid in their grieving.

Poetry Therapy aided my own healing. I then shared my poems with others to help with theirs.

Poetry was an integral part of the healing portion of the Journey of Hearts website established to help anyone grieving a loss. Over the years my healing poems have been used as part of funeral, memorial and remembrance services, published as memorials in newspapers and yearbooks and sent as e-mail condolences.

I was fortunate enough 10 years ago to take a course with Poetry Therapist, John Fox on "Forming Community and Revealing Uniqueness Through Poem-Making" as a course from the National Foundation of Integrative Medicine.

John has gone on to become a leader in the movement of poetry therapy as an expressive art and in particular, the use of poetry in medicine. When I read this exercise on using Prayer Poems, I knew it could be a useful exercise to help NICU Parents cope with the NICU experience.

Write a Prayer Poem
John starts with a definition of prayer and writes that:

Prayer is a way to communicate with the Divine. Prayer [also] is a way to love the spirit of whatever is dear to you. Prayer is a way to let your heart cry out. Prayer is a way to come exactly as you are to the Unknown, the mystery of it all. Bring to your prayer what is raw, what is sublime.

Prayer is a way to welcome a wider vision of life for you.

He then goes on to pose a series of questions, starting with a poetic line, "Prayer is words strung like beads on the thread of your silence."

• Are you aware of the silence that your prayer words join with?
  
• What fertile silence do you long to enter?
  
• How does this kind of silence effect your world?
• How does divine guidance respond to your plea for help?
  
• Who reaches your heart in those times when no one else can?
  

Finally John encourages people to write a prayer of your own.

This exercise of writing a Prayer Poem could be useful ones for NICU Parents struggling with issues of faith and they try to understand the reasons behind why their newborn is in the Intensive Care Unit.

A Special Healing Blessing
Even though John and I were not in touch at the time of my daughter's NICU adventures, I am sure that his exercise of Prayer Poems would have been a helpful way for me to creatively coping during our time in the NICU.

On my own I did created our own version of a Prayer Poem by writing a Healing Blessing. This Special Healing Blessing was placed over our daughters isolette until she was discharged. Copies were gifted to the NICU on her discharge.

Source:
Fox. J. Poetic Medicine Bag: Exercise 3: Prayer Poems. The Institute for Poetic Medicine.

Images: Elena Buetler. Writing. Royalty Free Use.
Kirsti A. Dyer MD, MS. NICU Blessing. Some Rights Reserved.