Look, God, I have never spoken to you,

But now, I want to say, “how do you do?”

You see, God, they told me You didn’t exist

And like a fool, I believed all this.

Last night, from a shell-hole, I saw Your sky

And I figured then they had told me a lie.

Had I taken time to see things You made,

I’d have known they weren’t calling a spade a spade.

I wonder, God if You’d shake my hand.

Somehow, I feel that You will understand.

Funny, I had to come to this hellish place

Before I had the time to see Your face.

Well, I guess there isn’t much more to say.

But I’m sure glad, God, that I met You today.

I guess the zero hour will soon be here,

But I’m not afraid since I know You’re near.

There’s the signal — I’ve got to go.

I like You lots, I want You to know.

Look now, this will be a horrible fight.

Who knows? I may come to Your house tonight.

Though I wasn’t friendly to You before,

I wonder, God, if You’d wait at Your door?

Look, I’m crying — Me — shedding tears!

I wish I had known You these many years.

Well, I have to go now, God — Goodbye.

Strange, since I met You, I’m not afraid to die.

Thank you. — No Name, No Town.

ANSWER: If you put the first few words of this into a search engine online, the poem, or near identical versions of it, appears on several websites. One site says the poem, which is called “A Soldier’s Conversation,” was penned by Frances Angermayer in Kansas City on June 3, 1943, and was “found in the possession of numerous boys who fell on the battlefields of WWII.”

Plenty of other sites give alternative origin stories, titles and potential authors for this same poem, which many soldiers obviously found meaningful.

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