KB Ballentine ~ 3 Questions & a Poem

3 Questions and a Poem–in which one of my favorite poets is interviewed and shares a poem.

Question 1

What do you consider the three most important elements of a poem?

Three important elements of a poem are the musicality of language, verb choice, and imagery.

One of the things that sets poetry apart from most prose (except in the cases where prose writers are also poets like Ron Rash) is language. There should be no extraneous words in a poem, and they should be the absolute best words for the world of that poem. Alliteration, consonance, assonance, and rhyme (internal or end) are the powerhouse of a poem.

An offshoot of musicality of language is verb choice. I am a huge proponent of letting verbs do as much work as possible in a poem. Prose is a different animal, so it’s not a big deal to use adjectives and adverbs there, but poetry…ah, poetry is the distillation of language and choosing strong verbs to do the heavy lifting in a poem is imperative. I love using words that aren’t verbs as verbs as a surprise to the reader (and sometimes myself!).

Imagery, of course, uses the five+ senses to create a picture for the reader. It’s difficult to know what a poem is about if the reader doesn’t know “where” in the poem they are, and imagery is key to getting the reader to see what the writer paints in words.

Question 2

What’s your best advice for writing poetry?

Best advice for writing poetry is to read, read, read: not just poetry but anything. Learn new words (especially verbs, especially words that can be made into verbs). Read voraciously.

Another important aspect of writing is to submit. I hear writers lament not being published, but many writers don’t send out their work. Or they send it out and are hurt/angry their work wasn’t accepted for publication. The publishing world teems with great journals, editors and publishers.

The writer must remember to write what’s on the heart/mind, but they must also remember that journals typically follow some sort of narrative and the poems they send may not fit the vision the editors/publishers have for that journal at that time. It’s not personal. I have had poems returned (not rejected, by the way; I think that’s an important distinction to remember, thank you, Carole at Orbis) by some of the same editors who have also accepted my work. Publishers have a vision, too, and must answer to that.

Question 3

What’s the one poem that everyone should read today?

I don’t know how I could possibly limit myself to one poem for everyone! Each person will find, probably moment to moment, a different poem that will speak to them. For today, at this time, I would say ee cummings’s “i thank you God for most this amazing” (I thank you God for most this amazing by e.e. cummings – Famous poems, famous poets. – All Poetry) because it reminds us about the magnitude of capturing joy in the everyday, in being able to get up and appreciate something beautiful beyond ourselves.

& a Poem…

Weight of the Soul
    with thanks to Emily Dickinson


Night kisses the cardinal’s song
with the luster of dusk, embraces the edge
of all I can see. The way you linger
and fill every atom of empty space.
The chestnut-oak’s gold but already veined
and outlined in brown, mauve mums fading
into white, and, oh, the boughs
that keep baring their limbs!
I know the grieving speak
a different language, but I hope you understand –
the bluebirds are still here – just –
and they flit from feeder to porch,
watch wrens lost in the open garage.
I know the ruin is within. But Spring,
Spring will come again.


KB Ballentine


From All the Way Through 
Sheila-Na-Gig, Inc
ISBN: 9781962405096 (2024)
KB Ballentine | Sheila-Na-Gig Inc.

Remember:

There is a luxury in looking back at a journey completed. We begin something because we intend to finish it, and it is the journey that carries more weight than how we start or when we end. The loss or change of relationships, health, and home finds us in denial and “fight mode” where acceptance and appreciation are often hard-won battles.

 As the opening poem suggests, this collection is a meditation against forgetting those moments we tend to throw away — lonely, angry, ugly, grief-filled moments we would rather forget. But these are exactly the situations that make us who we are and should be valued even after we make it through the difficult times: especially when we make it all the way through.

About the Author

KB Ballentine teaches creative writing, theatre arts, and literature to high school and college students, her home nestled at the base of the Appalachian Mountains in Tennessee. She has an M.A. in Writing from the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing, Poetry from Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Her work has appeared in numerous journals and publications, including Atlanta Review, North Dakota Quarterly, Linnet’s Wings, Crab Orchard Review, Alehouse, Tidal Basin Review, Haight–Ashbury Literary Journal, The Sigh Press, and MO: Writings from the River.

Ballentine’s eighth collection Spirit of Wild was published by Blue Light Press in March 2023. Edge of the Echo from Iris Press launched in 2021, and The Light Tears Loose appeared the summer of 2019, also from Blue Light Press. 2017 showcased Ballentine’s fifth poetry collection Almost Everything, Almost Nothing, published by Middle Creek Publishing and Audio. In 2016, The Perfume of Leaving received the Blue Light Press Book Award.

Her work also appears in several anthologies: White Stag: Spirit Anthology(2023), LOVE Anthology(2023), Women Speak: Volume 8 (2022), Appalachia (Un)Masked (2022), I Thought I Heard a Cardinal Sing (2022), The Strategic Poet (2021), Women Speak: Vol 7 (2021), Pandemic Puzzle Poems (2021), The Mountain (2021), Pandemic Evolution (2021), In Plein Air (2017), Carrying the Branch: Poets in Search of Peace (2017), In God’s Hands (2017), River of Earth and Sky: Poems for the Twenty-first Century (2015), Southern Poetry Anthology, Volume VI:  Tennessee (2013) and Southern Light: Twelve Contemporary Southern Poets (2011).

She was selected as a finalist for the Southern Alliance of Literature Outstanding Writer for 2021; she was awarded the Libba Moore Gray Poetry Prize in 2016, in 2014 she was a finalist in the Ron Rash Poetry Awards, and in 2006 a finalist for the Joy Harjo Poetry Award. She was a recipient of the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Prize in 2006 and in 2007.

KB’s website: https://www.kbballentine.com/