I Made A Place For You by Damian White is a book of eloquent poetry that includes more than twenty short poems, with illustrations by Francesco Orazzini. Many of the poems have a religious theme, focusing on God, heaven, or the devil, including God’s Typewriter, Sacred Math, Devil Bait, A Sinner’s Plea, and Playing God. Other themes include death, deception and hiding your true self, and faith and fate. This is the author’s first published book of poetry and many of the poems were inspired by his personal experiences with homelessness.

I enjoyed reading this book of poetry and the author left me wanting more. The author’s words invoke vivid and interesting imagery, and I liked the variation of structure and style between the different poems. It’s always interesting to me to have a glimpse into the world from someone else’s unique perspective. 

I enjoyed the drawings that were included in this book. They were interesting images and I liked the use of bright colors. The various aspects of the illustration requires more than a quick glance to notice all the nuances. Each poem is accompanied by an illustration which adds an extra creative layer to this book of poetry, setting it apart from others of its kind. Although I have read a number of poetry books, I have never read a book of poems with pictures in it, and I was surprised to find how much I liked the inclusion of illustrations in this book. I liked comparing what the author had written to the illustrator’s visual representations.

Many of the poems in this book were quite short, only a few lines, and none of the poems were longer than one page. I would have liked the book to have included more poems, or for some of the poems in the book to be longer in length, but this is only because I enjoyed them so much. Because half of the pages of the book contained pictures, I was able to read it very quickly.

This is an emotionally-resonant, observant, and thought-provoking collection of poetry. I heartily enjoyed I Made A Place For You for its potent, authentic and lyrical poetry that expertly utilized beautiful imagery to add additional layers to an already fascinating collection.

Pages: 58 | ISBN : 1639885706