Morning prayer

O wondrous, profound silence -

how solitary it is yet in the world!

The woods just bow softly,

as if God were moving through the silent field.

I feel as if newly created:

where is sorrow now and affliction?

What just yesterday sapped my strength

shames me in dawn's light.

The world with its grief and joy,

I wish, as a pilgrim, blithely ready,

to traverse - like a bridge that leads

to you, God, across the stream of time.

And lying in wait for the world's favor, my song courts

the disdainful wages of vanity:

Break my strings! -- and trembling,

I will be silent before You in eternity.