In My Own Way!

To those wordy prayers I bade adieu,

Fixed, formal ways of addressing You,

For, an onerous burden it soon became,

Day in and day out repeating the same.

Words I muttered in a strange tongue,

Litanies to an unknown god that I sung:

My worship turned into mere pretence,

The time thus spent a wasteful expense,

And so, to myself I began to this to say:

To You I must in my own way now pray.

Dearest Friend You are—they say so,

Our deep thoughts You already know,

So, why long prayers should I rehearse

When I could say it all in manner terse?

And why others’ words should I recite

When to my own words I have a right?

In the way I like best all this I can do,

Communing just as I please with You.

When two dear friends together meet

The same tired words they don’t repeat.

What comes from the heart they convey

All that it might be that they want to say.

So, no longer chained by habit and fear,

I’ll speak with You as a friend, my dear.

Unconcerned by what others might say,

 I’ll relate with You now in my own way!