Aphorism, epigram, adage--the essence of each form is a saying short and pithy. Brief, condensed, and easy to recite, these represent a culture's wise advice. What an aesthetics of the miniature! As French philosopher Gaston Bachelard observes, "The miniscule, a narrow gate, opens up an entire world." Some such sayings are pure description, yet they hint at something more; others appear to be an elder's admonition to a child; some resound with probing observations of human nature and God; others are light, whimsical wordplays. The Renaissance humanist Erasmus, who collected over four thousand adages, believed a proverb to be like a hurled javelin, striking the hearer's mind with a short point, implanting barbs for meditation. Nietzsche proposed that "the relief-like, incomplete representation of a thought, or a whole philosophy is sometimes more effective than its exhaustive amplification." So Bazyn's gnomic verse functions almost like Zen koans to push readers into new ways of perceiving. These four volumes, like a patchwork quilt, are interwoven with 196 color photographs (abstract to concrete), shot from myriad angles in assorted styles. When pondered seriously, they help unravel manifold meanings within each saying.

Ken Bazyn is retired 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," Apocalyptic Fervor, and Blessings of the Tanakh.