KB Ballentine
Review for KB Ballentine & Spirit of Wild:
Wild weaves through each of us, but the spirit of wild doesn’t always rage. Sometimes it is the gentle, quiet moments alone in our souls that show us who and what we are. The spirit of strength, the spirit of wonder, the spirit of curiosity, the spirit of fury, the spirit of peace are all part of us. But we bottle or ignore them, questioning our anxiety and depression. Spirit of Wild is the eighth collection of poetry by KB Ballentine.
These poems speak to that spark in each of us that we might remember even through our sorrows, tragedies, joys, and silent seasons that the spirit of wild doesn’t call us – it is us.
Don’t ignore it. Don’t let it go. Hold it tight as you dream, when you wake, and as you live your day. Yes, live. Live and embrace wild.
Hayley Mitchell Haugen, publisher of Sheila-Na-Gig Editions, says of this collection: Spirit of Wild confirms that “each day waits with sudden mysteries, / offerings, / like dreams half-remembered / from the night.” In lyrical, precise language that throbs and pulses with the rhythms of the natural world, Ballentine celebrates the spirit of all manner of life’s organic wonders, from the fox and wren to the bee and seahorse, to lavender fog and “stones cloaked in mossy silence.” I can’t think of a better time for this exuberant collection to come to light, nor a better time to heed Ballentine’s call to “cast off the rooms where we’ve boxed ourselves tight / step into the den of the forest’s deep heart.”
Author of Gathering Stones and Fragments of Light, published by Celtic Cat Publishing, What Comes of Waiting, The Perfume of Leaving, and The Light Tears Loose published by Blue Light Press, and Almost Everything, Almost Nothing published by Middle Creek Publishing and Audio, and Edge of the Echo, published by Iris Press, KB Ballentine teaches English, theatre, and creative writing at Rhea County High School. An adjunct at Chattanooga State Community College, Ballentine also finds time to lead an Open Mic and participate in local writing groups.
Books may also be purchased online from Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
Author: KB Ballentine, kb@kbballentine.com
Publisher: Blue Light Press / First World Publishing
ISBN: 978-1-42183-538-X $20 Publication Date: March 2023
Spirit of Wild Website: www.kbballentine.com.