Do You Believe in God?
- Written by: Amy Frykholm
Published: 0 November 2025
Pádraig Ó Tuama (b.1975)
Do You Believe in God?
I turn to you,
not because I trust you,
or believe in you,
but because I need a direction for my need. You—
the space between me and death; you—
the hum at the heart of an atom; you—
nothing; you—my favorite emptiness; you—
what I turned away from and will turn to; you—
my ache made manifest in address; you,
silent you, what my friends saw as they died; you
contain what’s not containable; you
are the shape of my desire—
Pádraig Ó Tuama (b.1975) is an Irish poet and theologian. He hosts On Being’s podcast Poetry Unbound. He received a PhD from the School of Critical Studies (Creative Writing and Theology) at the University of Glasgow. This poem is the opening work in his recent book Kitchen Hymns (Copper Canyon Press, 2025).
Selected by Amy Frykholm: amy@journeywithjesus.net
