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    Artistic Alchemy: Transmuting Cinnabar into Gold
    Artistic Alchemy: Transmuting Cinnabar into Gold
    Artistic Alchemy: Transmuting Cinnabar into Gold
    Ebook138 pages38 minutes

    Artistic Alchemy: Transmuting Cinnabar into Gold

    By Ken Bazyn

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    About this ebook

    Bazyn's poems seek to encourage Christians of all stripes to present a new song unto the Lord--by actual example and useful advice. All sorts of issues relating to creativity are touched upon, whether theological, psychological, sociological, philosophical, linguistic, or autobiographical.

    Among the topics covered: finding your own voice; reading widely and deeply in the classics; being spare, concise in your style; discovering your genuine self beneath its assorted masks; taking occasional flights of fantasy; considering your mind as a house of memory; perfecting your art, even in a miniature way.

    Celebrating your mentors--among the authors are Dickinson, Donne, and Hafez; reflecting on your past by looking at old photographs; drawing inspiration from home and family; not allowing overly critical editors to stifle your creativity; recognizing that the artistic life may be a lonely and perilous journey toward fulfillment; seeking after God's will in all that you do; never being afraid to head into deeper waters; acknowledging that we are, at best, half-converted souls.

    Black-and-white photos by the author illumine the themes of these pieces. Also, there is a bibliography of recommended readings on creativity. Go, and find your voice; then let it rise up to the Lord night and day.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherResource Publications
    Release dateNov 9, 2017
    ISBN9781532634529
    Artistic Alchemy: Transmuting Cinnabar into Gold
    Author

    Ken Bazyn

    Ken Bazyn is long-time editorial director of Religious Book Club. He has written The Seven Perennial Sins and Their Offspring and Soul-Wrestling: Meditations in Monochrome. He has published articles in forty periodicals, from Commonweal to Dialog, and his photographs have appeared in forty-five magazines. His previous books of poetry are Gospel Midrashim, Jesting Angels, Artistic Alchemy, Humanity, Nuptial Favors, Creation Groans On, The Poetic “I,” and Apocalyptic Fervor.

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      Book preview

      Artistic Alchemy - Ken Bazyn

      9781532634512.kindle.jpg

      Artistic Alchemy

      Transmuting Cinnabar into Gold

      Ken Bazyn

      4141.png

      Artistic Alchemy

      Transmuting Cinnabar into Gold

      Copyright © 2017 Ken Bazyn. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.

      Resource Publications

      An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers

      199

      W.

      8

      th Ave., Suite

      3

      Eugene, OR

      97401

      www.wipfandstock.com

      paperback isbn: 978-1-5326-3451-2

      hardcover isbn: 978-1-5326-3453-6

      ebook isbn: 978-1-5326-3452-9

      Manufactured in the U.S.A.

      January 15, 2018

      Table of Contents

      Title Page

      Preface: A Whisper

      Acknowledgments

      Introduction: Bearing a New Song into Your Presence

      Have Done with Donne

      A Minor Manifesto

      The Land of Make-Believe

      Poetic Diction

      Pretend

      Paradise

      In the Circle of Light

      Homo Hypocrites

      In the Middle, Fabulous Kingdom

      The Glass Flowers

      Miniature Illusions

      Transmuting Cinnabar into Gold

      A Surrealist Manifesto

      A Futurist Declaration

      Stairway of Surprise

      Master Donne Is Dead

      Angeli Domini

      Haiku

      In a Zen Rock Garden

      Buddhist Aesthetics

      My Mystic Eclogue

      The Garden of Hafiz

      Omnivorous Ameba

      The House of Memory

      A New Poet

      Half My Life Is Over

      Deeper Waters

      The Day the Muses Died

      Charms Which Wiggle

      So-Called Masterpieces

      Tradition

      Home

      This Sleepy Town

      Why Doesn’t the World Celebrate Quality?

      A Mirror with a Memory

      I Felt a Smile . . .

      Misguided Muses

      Editors

      A Reviewer’s Dispute

      To Avoid Criticism

      Ennui

      The Wreck of My Own Self

      To Know God’s Will

      The Prodigal Philosopher

      Apologetics

      A Legacy

      Here at Life’s End

      An Epilogue

      As I Crossed a Bridge of Dreams

      Recommended Reading on Creativity

      Listing of Photographs

      Works Cited

      figure01.jpg.jpg

      Preface

      A Whisper

      Our life is but a whisper

      amid the screaming world.

      Acknowledgments

      Deep praise is due to my wife, Barbara, with whom I had delightful tête-à-têtes on the meaning of these poems, so raising their levels, and to David Reynolds, who never seems to tire of improving my style, grammar, theology, and the overall impression a book can make.

      My gratitude spills over to Wipf & Stock for continuing its commitment to publishing worthy Christian poetry and to Kyle Lundburg for exceptional typesetting skills.

      Thanks, too, belong to Robert Meier for developing my film and making such wonderful prints. Also, I should commend Rockbrook Camera in Omaha for putting my negatives onto a CD.

      I shouldn’t forget family, friends, teachers, and neighbors, who had to endure my creative eccentricities.

      Credit is given here for first publishing the following poem:

      My Mystic Eclogue in Old Hickory Review

      Introduction

      Bearing a New Song into Your Presence

      A characteristic common to God and man, mystery writer Dorothy Sayers declares, is the desire and ability to make things.¹ In the book of Genesis, creation is not a one-time event, but a continuous, ongoing process. God did not wind up the world like a clock, as many eighteenth-century Deists insisted, then let it tick away on its own.² Rather, God is always creating, sustaining, preserving, animating, and coaxing his universe into fruitfulness. Augustine posited that if God did not exert his creative will at each and every moment, the universe would simply collapse.³ "All creatures are balanced

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