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This poetry compilation integrates authentic, experience-based, spiritual poetry with a deeper glimpse into how Carter synthesizes Bible readings and who he was before he discovered his relationship with God. In the first chapter, Carter uses the story of “a man who fell” to share the incessant battle between faith and trust (in oneself and the Lord) and demons such as doubt and pride. Readers get a chance to see exactly what inspired a particular poem and how Carter grappled with the challenges of getting God’s rhyme into written form.
With much of the poetry focusing on narrative free verse, imagery such as the crown of thrones in poems such as “The Love God Gives” leaves an indelible mark. Later, poems like “One Day in the World” portray both the wounded spirit and its evolution to renewed faith and resolve. The third chapter, “Poems from the Attic,” shifts focus to literary devices such as alliteration, enjambment, and rearranged sentence structure to create flow. These poems are primarily focused on love and an ode to the speaker’s wife.
Carter’s work recommends consciously having a conversation with God. These conversations are the root source of easing humanity’s pain and suffering. Interestingly, in poems like “The Book on the Shelf,” Carter utilizes sentence structure to show that just as the punctuation is being held prisoner, man is often behind his own bars that life has presented him; he must ask for help from God to be found. Nearing the end of Carter’s work, audiences will find a fusion of his poetry that is inspired by the artwork of Gwen Allen. Throughout, Carter provides supreme clarity in the joy he experienced in writing and the hope that audiences will find a similar joy as they live in their own rendition of God’s rhyme.