O Lord my God, why bother with this prayer

O Lord my God, why bother with this prayer
For help, another plea for mercy? Knows
It not the way to heaven where my woes
Are heard? Or God who hears, do you not care
About your slave, your child who offers here
His life and love in poem and in prose
Upon the penciled page of pain? Propose
You not a better way than this to clear
My heart from idols, test my being whole,
To burn me with the fires that refine,
That take my life and wealth and all control
Perceived from me? O God who hears, incline
Your ear: take not your Spirit from my soul
Lest I could not pray this the thousandth time.