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What Carter has done with his numerous poetry compilations is chronicled his life’s journey through God’s rhyme for him. His poetry is a map of where he has been, where he is, and where he is headed. In this compilation, Carter weaves poems of faith with elements of philosophy.
From the get-go, poems like “Grandfather Clock,” where the clock is the eternal eye of time, demonstrate that the hours are not ours, and we must take advantage of prayer to find our truth. Chapter 3 takes readers back nearly fifty years, where poetry, youth, and fatherhood inspire poems like “At Twenty Five,” a commemoration of the tense moments that culminate in becoming a father. In more fun-spirited but less purposeful poems like “I was Just Thinking,” audiences will see a more playful speaker.
When Carter shifts back to faith poems in Chapter 4, he reverts to free verse to emphasize the words themselves. Poems like “God Hates Sin” and “More” dig deeper into the idea that God built man to be a temple. Do not destroy it, he suggests, but rather fill it to the brim with love and trust, the fabrics of faith. The process, as depicted in “Lost in Prayer (A prayer lost, He heard, but did I listen?)” is not going to be one without its share of stormy seas. Nevertheless, God’s answer to your prayers will be the best answer for you, and if people can live life with that core belief, they will find themselves leading fuller lives. For aficionados of faith-based poetry, and the art of expression itself, Carter’s poetry is a comprehensive journey—a before and after of sorts—that is punctuated by the opportunity to experience his internal monologue as he is creating these poems.