Along Unfamiliar Paths

By Austin L. Scott

Along Unfamiliar Paths is a therapeutic conversation about our perilous journey through life and all its uncertainties, with Christ as the healing agent. This book is for the imperfect people of the world, those who have deficits. It is for the parents who abandoned their children, the children who suffer from that abandonment, the husband and wife who do not love each other, the family that is divided, and the friends who have hurt and betrayed each other. Each poem is emulative of the conversations I have with my father--unhurried, non-judgmental, and refreshing in their blunt honesty, as coming from someone who genuinely cares. Overall, my hope is that the work nourishes your thoughts so you can heal your wounded heart.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Release date: Dec 21, 2022
• ISBN: 9781666754896

Book preview

Introduction

Centering on my Christian faith, my creative work dwells lovingly on my spiritual experiences with Christ through poetry. It is written primarily in the autobiographical tradition and uses end-rhyme lyric structures. It also includes direct quotations from the Biblical text to lend authority to my thoughts, and utilizes metaphor and imagery to provoke a change of feeling in the reader. The work is informed by the craft of other poets in publicly accessible collections and anthologies in the print and digital mediums. Captured by the subjective notion of Christ’s primacy, the work has three objectives. The first aim is to reverse the perception created by Cultural Christianity that holiness and righteousness are decoupled from faith, and that Christianity is only another piece of American/Southern furniture. Secondly, the creative work extols the wonder of God’s expiating power for those in a genuine relationship with him. Thirdly, the poetry offers the Christian path to healing for those who have endured traumatic events. These three objectives form the core of the work as they affirm human meaning and purpose.

Also, Along Unfamiliar Paths is a mixture of poetry crafted from an assortment of techniques such as prose, alliterative verse, couplets, and quatrains. There is also a block of poems in the work in which I utilize sixteenth century/Shakespearean English, having developed an unexpected fondness for it during the period of the capstone’s development.

The prevailing dynamic through all my poetry writing is the sincere desire to engage the reader in a therapeutic conversation, with Christ as the healing agent. My work is aimed at those who have deficits—the parents who abandoned their children, the children who suffer from that abandonment, the husband and wife who do not love each other, the family that is divided, and the friends who have hurt and betrayed each other. This approach is emulative of the conversations I have with my father—unhurried, non-judgmental, and refreshing in their blunt honesty, as coming from someone who genuinely cares. Overall, my objective for the work is to serve as a cocktail of nourishing thoughts for the reader to heal their wounded hearts.

Along Unfamiliar Paths

Copyright ©

2022

Austin L. Scott. 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,

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paperback isbn: 978-1-6667-5487-2

hardcover isbn: 978-1-6667-5488-9

ebook isbn: 978-1-6667-5489-6

11/17/22

Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®). Copyright ©

2001

by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright ©

1995

by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org

Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©

1973

,

1978

,

1984

,

2011

by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Along Unfamiliar Paths