I am drawn to the things that have never been said.
I am determined to release these godly feelings
and not hold back
what others do not dare to ask.
If that’s outrageous, my God, forgive.
All I am trying to say is this:
My very best offerings are spontaneous,
without hesitation or irritation,
in precisely the way children love You.
Like waters swell and ebb into the open sea,
I want to proclaim Your name, in mounting waves,
like no one has done before.
If that is audacious,
then let me be rude for the sake of my prayer,
which, sincere and solemn,
rises before Your veiled face.
—Rainer Maria Rilke, The Book of Hours, I, 12
translation by Martina Nagel, illustration by Denise Louise Klitsie,
from Praying the Hours in Ordinary Life (Cascade Books, 2010)