I Wrote This For You: Just the Words

I Wrote This For You #2

by pleasefindthis, Iain S. Thomas, Jon Ellis (photographer)

First some thoughts, then a widely followed blog, then a successful book, I Wrote This For You is a phenomenon that has touched countless people around the world.

The almost complete works of over 400 poems is contained in this book with select photography. Each section reflects on an aspect of life, love and loss and is a book to keep close by for years to come. It was, after all, written for you.

Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction, Romance, Contemporary, Love, Adult, Short Stories

216 pages, Paperback

First published December 17, 2013

About the author

pleasefindthis (the pen name of Iain S. Thomas) is best known for the I Wrote This For You project, which he began in 2007 as a blog with photographer, Jon Ellis. The project was published as a book in December of 2011 and appears on bestseller lists weekly.

He lives in Cape Town, South Africa and shares his home with his wife, daughter and various animals.

Reviews

[Chelsea · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want this entire book painted across my bedroom walls.

[Yvette · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you are looking for elegant poetry with wonderful imagery and words put together in a beautiful way you've never thought of before, skip this book.

This book reminds me of Lang Leav, whose work I do not enjoy. It took me a year to finish this book, which is a pity because I remember being really excited for it at first.

When I read poetry, I expect to feel something. Of course, poetry doesn't have to make literal sense, but I expect the meaning of the poem to be felt.

In this book, everything is said, and nothing is shown. You are told how to feel, and why you are feeling this way. The words are flat and literal and boring. For example:

The Whole World Is Watching

You're younger than you'll be tomorrow. You've never been closer to the day you die. Go. Now.

The Person Happiness Became

So if you love me but you don't need me, you don't love me.

Most of the book is filled with sappy lines like those. Yes, there are a few lines I loved such as

I am made of ghost notes, from songs you never heard.

There are a number of pieces that would have worked very well if only the author trusted the reader to infer and make their own meaning more. A pity; I so wanted to like this book.

[Ronak Gajjar · Rating 3 out of 5]

The type of poetry: Free Verse
REPEATED! REPEATED! REPEATED! REPEATED! REPEATED! REPEATED! REPEATED!
And still:

The Title + Canto concept, merged along with volume I. But,
Don’t you worry. Everything will be easier when they can just plug a fountain pen nib straight into your heart.
This one was divided among substantial titles: On love found, On being in love, On love lost, On despair, On hope, On living and On dying. Well, titles themselves justify the same hierarchical order followed in volume I.
The constant paradox between quotations is pleasantly bizarre. One second you fight with your conscience, next second you pamper it, third you end it up crying, very next a splintered smile! Such as:
I’m not scared of never meeting you. I’m scared of having met you and let you go.
You feel an unruly nervousness.
Wish you were here. Wish I was there. Wish it was different. Wish wishes came true. I’d wish you back.
And you are suddenly in Bazaar of wishes.

Rather than being so abstract, the verses are simple yet precisely adequate to convey the meaning. I will recommend again this one to everyone.
Let me end it with my favorite quote:
You’re just another story. I can’t tell anymore.

P.S.: I Am NOT restraining myself from showering this review with cheesy gifs. It made me feel “Love” isn’t, after all, an alien feeling.

[Caroline]

DNF 52 pages in.

I bought this book when it was quite cheap and thought I would like it because, in general, I enjoy poetry. I struggled a bit with this book. I just found all the poems to be a bit...nothing. They were all very surface level and although they seemed nice when I first read them I found I forgot them immediately after putting the book down. There wasn't any depth to them in my opinion and it just seemed like they were a bit cliche, written in a formulaic way to appeal to a wide audience. Not the book for me but others might still enjoy it.

[Jennica · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like it, I did. There were some really wonderful pieces that might even stay with me for a while. But they were few and far between in a book of poetry that was all tell and no show. It mostly felt repetitive and too obvious.

I think many of the poems would have been better as a line in a longer poem than they were attempting to stand alone. Some of them I genuinely thought I had already read earlier in the work. The poet uses a lot of parallel structures and repetition of themes, but it doesn't come off as intentional. As a whole work it just felt like it could have used some major editing.

[Anu Khadka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it !!!

[Eliza Barry · Rating 1 out of 5]

This collection borders on the absurd. Its admirers claim there is something for everyone in here. And then you come across something along the lines of, "This is only for you, the words, blah, blah, blah. Only you get it, blah, blah, blah...", which excludes as a rule.

I'm extremely disenchanted with this whole poetry-as-a-gimmick shtick these poets and publishers have sunk to in order to sell poetry. This collection is no different than the depressingly generic, high school level, cafe-latte-poetry Lang Leav is a perpetrator of.

Conclusion: nothing worthwhile to see here, folks. Move along.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was just incredible. Some of the most unique, and beautiful poems I’ve ever read.

[Tasfia Hossain · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think I may have judged this book too early to start with. But as I kept reading I figured out the greater purpose of this book. The thing that fascinated me the most about this book is that each person who will read this will have a different interpretation of it. Each and every quote in this book can be applied to anyone's life however they wish. Each and every one of the quotes were so beautiful, I just wanted to tab every single page, except that it was borrowed.

[Millie Cullen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️

[Silvia · Rating 4 out of 5]

*4.5*

This collection of poems was sitting on my shelf for so long that I just had to pick it out in January
I absolutely loved it. I have to admit it, yeah, mea culpa, I saw Harry Styles reading this and I bought the book cause Harry Styles is the purest thing on Earth and we should all agree to that.
I'll write a nonfiction book about it someday. Okay, well, let's go back to the book.
I like this kind of poetry. It is very direct, and it goes straight through the heart. I am, right now, not in a good place concerning my mental health, and some of these poems really helpmed me some days. The last part was kind of depressing, personally I would have made the choice to end the collection with poems about life rather than death, but I can totally see why the author did that and I respect that a lot. The photography was also amazing, so shoutout to that.
Great read all in all, I would totally recommend it if you like "modern poetry" or poetry that goes straight to your heart.

[Julia Sapphire · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 out of 5 stars

“I've written you a hundred messages that I'll never send”

This was such a special poetry collection it deals with so many different topics. It's so realistic an beautiful and relatable. This was split into seven sections. On Love Found, On Being in Love, On Lose Lost, On Despair, On Hope, On Living, and On Dying.

My least favorites were the first two. I found it got a bit repetitive at times in the first two sections.
My favorites were the last four!!
If your trying to get into poetry definitely pick this up!

“If love and beauty were easy to find, they would not exist.

Chaos and sadness exist in order for you to find the love and beauty in them. So that love and beauty mean something.

It's meant to be hard.”

[guille (littlebitmoody) · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was repetitive and also, A LOT OF POEMS.
They had the same ones as the previous book so I was reading the same.
2.5

[Haidy Abouelnasr · Rating 4 out of 5]

I took my time reading this book, because sometimes I couldn’t help but re-read the same page over and over again, trying, but failing, to get over how lovely the writing is; how the author managed to so beautifully and carefully put your thoughts and feelings into words and make them art; how in those times, it really did feel like this book was written just for you.

There were so many entries I loved and so many I’ve highlighted, but my absolute favorite was:


The Importance of Correctly Numbering Things

“There are more grains of sand in the soles of your shoes than you will be given winters to dream or summers to make those dreams real.

And there are more stars in the sky than there are grains of sand on Earth.

We live in a universe so big that a dying star, in the greater scheme of things, is as significant as spilled milk or an unkissed kiss. In an infinite amount of time, everything that can be forgotten, will be forgotten.

In infinity, spilled milk and dying stars matter the same.

And if you're just someone brushing your teeth late at night or you're a planet breathing your last breath as you disappear into a black hole, everything you do matters just the same. Every breath you take is as important or unimportant as the sun in the sky or the moon in the night.

Scratching your ear, is a kind of miracle, depending on how you look at it.”


Although I’ve been reading this for over a month, I was still surprised when I reached the end and flipped the last page, I love books that make me feel that way.

[Jenb16 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I absolutely love poetry and have read so much of it that this book seemed exactly like something up my alley. It was leant to me by a friend of mine who wanted my opinion. This definitely started out on a weak and cheesy note. This book of poetry is split into various sections: On Love Found, On Being in Love, On Love Lost, On Despair, On Hope, On Living, On dying. The love poetry in the beginning was too cliche for me and felt very overdone. This book really turned around for me when I hit the part "On Hope", which in my opinion was the strongest and most beautiful section of the book. I enjoyed "On Living" and "On Dying" as well. I felt that the thoughts and sheer beauty of the words in these sections warranted this book a 4 rating. I think it really deserves a 3.5 but I gave it a 4 for some of the poems that moved me in this work. Overall, I would recommend this book for the poetry lover or anyone who enjoys words that move them. I recommend reading this in fragments, bits and pieces at a time. I also recommend making a nice warm tea or coffee and lighting a few candles!

[Wennie Hong · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been following I Wrote This For You since 2007, when it was just a blog. When the first book came out, I was sad to see some of the pieces I'd loved so much (from the blog) not in it. I appreciate this book because it's a collection of everything. Some of mu favorites that had been bookmarked online are in the first few pages. That being said, I am not a fan of the layout only because I feel like there is too much on each page. Maybe this was the only way to fit everything in? This is a personal distraction. What I enjoyed about the first book was the space. Another qualm I have with this is the repetition. I enjoy it to a certain extent, but it feels like a lot of pieces could have been grouped together because of such similarity in the themes and subject matter. This is also a personal distraction.

I will always be a fan of Iain Thomas, and I wrote this for you. The writing is simple and beautiful. All in all, this is a wonderful collection.

[Noor · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is beauty, love and everything that matters ♡

"The magnificent beauty of I Wrote This For You is quite simply this: the book is elegantly incomplete without you. No one else in the world can read it the way you do. No one." -Matthew E. May

[Azriel Najeh · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars ,

" I know I'm only borrowing it.
I know I have to give summer back to you.
Just as you, have to give winter,
back to me. "

[Sol Morena · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sin dudas esta es una de las reseñas que me mas va a costar escribir, no solo por el hecho de que es poesía y es mi genero favorito, sino porque es cuando una se da cuenta que hasta en lo que uno ama leer, podemos encontrar decepciones y este libro es uno de ellos. Me costo horrores terminar de leerlo, meses pasaron y cada vez que intentaba retomarlo era peor, mas complicado y no era capaz de terminar las poesías que comenzaba. Voy a intentar darle otra oportunidad al autor, pero realmente no fue este libro, sino que no me gusto su pluma, la forma que tienen de describir ciertas cosas y como lleva a expresarlas. No fue una de mis mejores lecturas pero eso da la pauta que siempre podemos encontrar una libro que desencaje de nuestros gustos. Voy a darle una segunda oportunidad, uno no puede encasillar a un autor por un solo libro, así que veremos que nos encontramos en otra oportunidad,

[NayDoubleU · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful

I give this a 5 because the words written in this book are written in a way that EVERYONE and ANYONE will find one poem (or whatever you want to call it) that calls to them, that inspires them, that speaks for them. give it a try you won't regret it. it's so beautiful.

[annika · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has truly a lot of beautiful quotes in it. I can absolutely see myself picking this up from time to time to flip through the pages and read some of them again. It might be interesting to see how my interpretation may change over time.

[palomapvesio · Rating 3 out of 5]

Las primeras fases son las que menos me han gustado,pero las últimas son geniales y me guardo muchas para mi❤️He tardado mucho en leerlo porque lo hacía cuando me apetecía,o cuando estaba inspirada,o cuando estaba sentimental. Ha sido mi primer libro de poesía,y en inglés.

[Melissa Mercedes · Rating 5 out of 5]

:') Para el alma, el corazón, la vida. Para cada día, para cualquier momento. Excelente. Hermoso. Reconfortante.

[Amna AlSayyah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, inspiring and it'll be read over and over and over again
just as expected

[Lotte · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pretty damn amazing poetry collection in my opinion. Mostly loved the sections on hope and on living. Would recommend!

[Jayde · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bit too pretentious for my tastes.

[Joanna Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

every poem somehow got right into my feels. yes, that good!

[Olivia Shelton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like to make myself sad often, so if you also like to feel a roller coaster of emotions read this poetry collection.

[Tricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I guess some of them are made for me. Or maybe not. I get emotionally tangled with the words at times and I can't help but write my responses like there is some kind discourse or argument going on.

What I didn't like about this is that some of the entries are misplaced. Like some thoughts about love are in On Dying or On Despair (but it's okay, no worries about it).

Some entries I liked (there's a lot!):


"If you'd tried to reach the one you loved just a little bit more, when you almost had them, your life would've been completely different." Me: But there will come a time that all people will get tired of reaching out and loving their someone. Sure, love can be given freely but then it is most tiring when you get hurt in the process. As for me, maybe this is the difference I want to make of my life - without him.

"People who hate you for not being like them are not worthy of hating back. Please let go of hate whenever you can. Accept love whenever given and give it out freely."

"I'm not scared of never meeting you. I'm scared of having met you, and let you go." Me: I'm not actually scared about it but I really do wish that I've never met you at all. If I just knew that you'll hurt me and all.

[Euna · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just couldn't finish this, no hate.