Help - christening poem needed

[Nimme]

My best friend's daughter's christening is next week. I really want to include a nice poem in my card (not going as abroad and too expensive).

Any ideas???

have a look at some of Blake's songs of Innocence - they are really lovely and celebrate the perfection sweetness of infants.Should be on the internet - don't go for the Songs of Experience though as they are about loss of innocence and worldy corruption!

sorry that should have said perfection AND sweetness!

have just perused my Blake collection.I would recommend Infant Joy, The Cradle Song , or The Lamb. All three are beautiful.

Should suggest you visit the MN Poetry Club but as its hideous thanks to me......
Mind you, if someone posted something sensible like this it might be retrieved.

There's a sweet poem called something like Irish Blessing which starts "May the road rise to meet you, may the wind be always at your back...". It just talks simply about blessings that life can bring. We had it at our wedding and it brought a few tears.

nimme, did you want a made up one or one that has already been written?

Thank you all - off to look at the Blake poems. Champs - definitely an existing one as I am running out of time and have to find, write down and post today.

Donnie - Blake's are not quite right - a bit too old fashioned (makes me sound very uneducated I'm sure)....

Wilbur - that sounds more like what I'm after - any chance of giving me a bigger hint?? I have spent hours on poemhunter.com without success.

Davros will check out MN site now.

Anybody else???

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again,
may God hold you in the palm of His hand.

How about a chunk from "on children" from the Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, 'Speak to us of Children.'

And he said:
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts.
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as he loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.

Soupdragon - that is fab, thank you. Where's the first one from??

Ive got 6 God children,how about:
If i could capture the moment of your birth
or the happiness that filled me with your first cries
then i could encase it,to gaze upon its shining light in moments of unquiet.
If i could weave a blanket from the purity of your heart and soul
and spread it over the earth that all might know this hope and joy
you are here now to set your mark on the world.
while i live, i will try without intrusion
to guide, guard and protect you.
Ever watchful yet not hindering your progress
and when my weary bones are to dust,
my love will surround you from the shadows.
(I cry evry time i read thatx)

Somebody once suggested this, which maybe works better as a reading - though I'm not sure I could get to the end without gulping. Last verse being about the best ever description of communing with a new baby.

somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond
any experience, your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near

your slightest look easily will unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully, mysteriously) her first rose

or if your wish be to close me, i and
my life will shut very beautifully, suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;

nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility: whose texture
compels me with the colour of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing

(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens; only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands

• e. e. cummings

See here for one I had at my DD's first birthday which was also a kind of naming ceremony. Not very religious but I liked it

The "may the road rise up to meet you" one I just searched for the first line of Wilbur's sugestion on Google.

May you have -
Walls for the wind
And a roof for the rain,
And drinks bedside the fire
Laughter to cheer you
And those you love near you,
And all that your heart may desire

Another celtic blessing from here

This is a wedding blessing from soupie's site but it would also do very well:

May God be with you and bless you.
May you see your children's children.
May you be poor in misfortune, rich in blessings.
May you know nothing but happiness
From this day forward

Thank you all very much!

I have decided upon the extract from Kahlil Gibran - very beautiful. Soupdragon thank you thank you thank you

I love Mumsnet

Nimme i too read the kahlil gibran to dd for her naming ceremony,it was lovely and so fitting.