Poetry: “To a Friend Who Does Not Believe in God” by Geoff White
Geoff White’s poem is quietly brilliant in its repetition and its devious device. The way it plays with spacing, flipping, and mirroring creates all kinds of possibilities. No matter what our beliefs, we all understand the way people we love can sometimes infuriate us, and how we can disagree with someone but still love and respect and care for them. But White’s poem does more than that—he shows us the ambiguity of the agnostic state, the suspense of questioning one’s faith, the difficulty of maintaining hope as life keeps throwing curveballs. Whatever your beliefs, White finishes with the most powerful lesson of all, leaving behind the questions of religion, sickness, and faith, turning instead to a much more powerful tool at humanity’s disposal. Storytelling can change the world. White knows this—now, we do, too.
To a Friend Who Does Not Believe in God
-after Jose A Alcantara
My dad made me promise
to come visit her.
And I did. I didn’t
know how to act. The tumor
grew back after the chemo
and she wasn’t herself.
And I didn’t. And I did.
The doctors gave her a week
and my coworkers warned me
three separate times like in the
New Testament I should be with her. And I did.
I went the next day and they
let me have the room with her.
They said she was still listening though I didn’t
remember the last time
I saw her awake. And I didn’t
Then I did. Then I didn’t
Then that wasn’t the point anymore.
So I didn’t
ask for her to stand up healthy
for me. I did
what anyone would do
for someone waiting for sleep.
I told her a story.
Geoff White
Geoff White (he/him) is a father, husband, poet and dog owner from Lexington, KY. He has always described his writing as "an exercise in sanity". He started writing in high school and has continued on an off to this day. He is getting more excited at how the poetry community is opening up before him. He has been published in The Writing Disorder, Atlantic Pacific Press, A Long Story Short, Chantarelle's Notebook, and has a poem forthcoming in a future publication of Yearling.
