Author: William Blake
Edited, and with an Introduction by: Dr. John Diamond
Publisher: Creativity Publishing  
ISBN: 1-890995-03-7

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In The Healing Power of Blake – A Distillation, in order not to disturb the flow and symmetry of Blake’s lines, John Diamond, M.D., has adopted an unusual approach to his presentation of the great Romantic poet’s work—he has positioned the lines vertically on the page, so that their full impact can be appreciated. By, in addition, using a larger than normal font, and strategic spacing (as he does in the collections of his own aphorisms and poems), Diamond brings the attention of the reader to the distinctive thoughts and utterances that comprise Blake’s work. For example, he devotes an entire page to the following:
                                    Do what you will, this Life’s a Fiction,
                                    And is made up of Contradiction.
Such positioning of the text and identification of core sentences eliminates the distraction of a more crowded page, facilitating access to one key statement at a time.
 
Diamond vows that he has a passionate commitment to furthering Blake’s deeply moving and evocative prophetic writings, from which this “distillation” has been gleaned. Their purity and truth he ascribes to them being “free of all inhibitions and distortions of publication and performance.” What also appeals to Diamond about Blake’s work is his lack of adherence to a formal and structured religion, so that, unlike Gerard Manley Hopkins, the former poet was able to explore his own visionary insights without fear of recrimination for stepping out of line.
 
In addition to a selection from Blake’s prophetic works, in The Healing Power of Blake – A Distillation, Diamond has also included a few excerpts from his other poems, as well as from his marginalia and letters, adding his personal touch to the prose by versifying it so that, in structural form, as it already does in content, it transcends the realm of the ordinary. Diamond has also taken the liberty of punctuating Blake’s writing “in the ancient way: for the strongest vocal expression of the swelling power of his Pulsation.”
 
Although Diamond acknowledges, in general, the source of this work, it would have been even more helpful if he had indicated which pieces of Blake’s writing he has adapted for this book. Nevertheless, the former author has, in this collection, achieved his intention to the full—conveying Blake’s love of the mercifully intertwined triumvirate, Christ, God and Man. A powerful work, The Healing Power of Blake – A Distillation should appeal to all adherents to poetry and the prophetic.         
 

Click Here To Purchase The Healing Power of Blake: A Distillation