Susanna's Poem

A good friend just shared this poem she found with me called "Susanna". Not only is it neat to find a poem with my daughter's name, spelled the same way and all, but such a poem that I would have loved anyway. If I'd found this poem before she was born, I would have considered naming her for this poem!

Poem: "Susanna" by Anne Porter, an excerpt from Living Things, published
by Zoland Books, an imprint of Steerforth Press of Hanover, New Hampshire. C
2006 Anne Porter.

Susanna

Nobody in the hospital
Could tell the age
Of the old woman who
Was called Susanna

I knew she spoke some English
And that she was an immigrant
Out of a little country
Trampled by armies

Because she had no visitors
I would stop by to see her
But she was always sleeping

All I could do
Was to get out her comb
And carefully untangle
The tangles in her hair

One day I was beside her
When she woke up
Opening small dark eyes
Of a surprising clearness

She looked at me and said
You want to know the truth?
I answered Yes

She said it's something that
My mother told me

There's not a single inch
Of our whole body
That the Lord does not love

She then went back to sleep.

It reminds me so much of my chaplaincy work at the hospital, of something I think about so much - the lives of the poor and oppressed and alone - and of work that I have been passionate about in the past (and remain so) - knowing that God loves every last little part of our bodies just as they are! This just made my day.

My friend also told me that, had either of her sons been a daughter, they would have been "Susanna"...which is funny because, coincidentally, the name of her first-born son is our original name pick for a boy. We must be kindred spirits :) There's a word for all this - synchronicity?

(No, I'm still not telling you our boy name. We might have a boy some day and we will keep the names secret from you all again!)