Gathering Stones is an exciting trilogy. In A Time to Speak, KB introduces the reader to the folklore that first influenced her reading and fascination with Ireland. However, it was the stories of family, handed down generation by generation, that fueled KB s deep desire to better understand Irish history. In A Time to Die, KB poignantly explores the hard times - the many occupations of Ireland, the struggles for freedom, the Great Famine and its legacy on America, and the more recent Troubles in Northern Ireland. In the final section, A Time to Dance, KB explores life in America for the new immigrant and then takes her readers with her as she makes a journey of self-discovery to her ancestral home.

Gathering Stones

Literature & Fiction

Ballentine, KB

Ballentine, K. B.

Ballentine, Karie B

Poetry

Celtic Cat Publishing LLC

Almost Everything, Almost Nothing is a balm for busy and troubling times, immersing the reader in lyric landscape and birdsong, a tapestry as well as a kind of territory. Ballentine's subtle, personal narrative is a light revealed late in these poems, prompting the reader to reconsider the poem, so recently traversed, with acute reflection.   "Our connections with the past, with each other and our surroundings, and with current events sculpt our attitudes and actions."            ~ KB Ballentine The impression of this decades current events, our zeitgeist,  lies here as well, buried as bones, or blooming in hues of ash and bruise. The   ubiquitous  sorrow of humanity suffering at its own hands, in these poems, rises occasionally like the seep of deep aches from old wounds. brought on by inclement weather, striking through the surface to connect the poets narrative with our own. These moments of connection come and go, as if Ballentine's pencil  were a needle piercing and stitching a field of material, a material patterned with the more constant, yet seasonally shifting cycles of birds and flowers and weather. "Almost Everything, Almost Nothing could be a definition of life - its potential promise, its potential curse. In this intense collection, KB Ballentine presents the dark ghosts of loss and love, awakened and grieved amidst historical terror and the calming beauty of the natural world. Often loss creates a personal aloneness the landscape cannot fill. What can we do when terror strikes an ocean away - plant flower bulbs in winter before bluebirds signal spring? Ballentine leads us through a four-season journey in which we learn that as humans, we can't hide from our sorrows and live this gift of life. Ballentine's poetry helps us belong to the ghosts of our loves and silences, our leavings, losses and grief." ~ Bill Brown, author of Elemental "Through the poems of Almost Everything, Almost Nothing, we are led on walks through the natural world of rose blossom and mimosa feather, of mushroom huddle and carob shadow, and, most of all, of light. Love, desire, history, memory, terror, longing - a whole range of trancelike connections with experience - KB embraces them all with close, sustained, transforming attention and insight rooted in oneness with the universe." ~ Mary Kay Rummel, Poet Laureate of Ventura County, CA,  and author of The Lifeline Trembles

Almost Everything, Almost Nothing

Ballantine, KB

Middle Creek Publishing & Audio

Raconteur is a literary magazine publishing engaging, interesting, eclectic and witty writing and artwork by international writers and artists, online and in print, 3 times per year.

Raconteur Vol. I, Issue II: A Suspenseful Literary Magazine

Verrillo, Erica

Shapiro, Marian Kaplun

Towse, Mark

Mercer, Todd

Blue, Marian

Thynes, Molly

Magazine, Raconteur Literary

Gerbig, Jody

Literary

Independently published

Spirit of Wild

Blue Light Press

Sky, trees, water, birds: though nature appears everywhere in Ballentine's work, it rarely does so for its own sake. It is more symbolic of internal or external struggle, development, and thought rather than "pretty" detail. The poems in The Light Tears Loose move from illustrations of light into dark - then darker -territory before it morphs back to light. Past and present circumstances often feel overwhelming, but it is in seeking that "silver lining" that we find reason to move forward, to keep going when the way seems vague or threatening. Our fear in living does not keep us from experiencing love and beauty, friendship and brightness along the way. As witnesses in the world, by connecting with nature, we can indulge ourselves with rest and renewal because we see it happen day after day, season after season. Darkness and winter come to us all but so do sunshine and spring. This is what we hold on to, even when the shadows creep so close we can't breathe. Keep moving forward: on the other side is the light.

The Light Tears Loose

WINNER OF THE 2016 BLUE LIGHT PRESS AWARD KB Ballentine's poetry embodies what James Wright called "the delicacy and strength of lace." Love and blues are her subjects, and she is faithful to them in lines that are firm yet fanciful, offering trellises with blooms in every season. Perhaps this is the "season of want," but in KB's hands the season is plentiful; the poems regale and nurture us, croon and soothe. The Perfume of Leaving is a gift that each song gives back after sorrow. From the elegant lyricism of "Blueshift" to the grudges "clutched like salt," our poet has the confidence and sureness of craft and spirit "to get it right / this time." -- Marilyn Kallet, author of 16 books, including The Love That Moves Me, Black Widow Press KB Ballentine's The Perfume of Leaving questions whether moments serve as arrival or threshold, blessing or sorrow. After all, we live in a context where "Eternity stains the air." So, too, memory-its possibilities, its promises, as well as its erasures, its regrets. Her poems offer a way to "refus e] the news and its dirges,"-both national and personal, both present and past- despite recognizing that "the path to the future lies broken." Ballentine's poems stand clear, steadfast, aware that even though "the way ahead is] unclear," we must "trust our hearts to that first step." -- Jeff Hardin, author of Small Revolutions and Restoring the Narrative In Celtic spirituality thin places are where the physical and spiritual, the visible and invisible, merge. Ballentine's work is full of such places, where past and present meet as "ghosts swarm," and where the "moment of blessing, moment of sorrow" are one and the same. Ballentine studies "the names they left" for clues to how past loss produces present strength. In response to "What could I offer now?" she offers the answer of deeply observed details: "... surf spooling around our ankles / Fireflies, hope flaring in twilight." This book is itself "a pause between ridges that capture(s) the light" and the note of this book's perfume is all heart. -- Kimberly L. Becker, author of Words Facing East and The Dividings In The Perfume of Leaving, KB Ballentine weaves alchemical word magic, with an astounding tenderness in vision and voice. Her poems are elegant jewels, with a powerful sense of place in the Appalachian mountains. Her writing weaves sensual beauty, transparent emotions, and language that sings -- poems running wild in the landscape of the heart. Her poems will call you to see the world in a different way. -- Diane Frank, author of Blackberries in the Dream House

The Perfume of Leaving

Some people flow in and out of our lives like water - rushing through like a stream, surrounding us like a peaceful lake then maybe travelling on to the sea. Some people are more like rocks: sturdy, stable, reliable - always there. Everyone we meet informs our sensibilities of the larger world around us, not allowing us to become so absorbed that we forget ourselves in this mad-dash through life. This collection of poems introduces the reader to people who voluntarily leave us as well as those we lose without their choice, much sooner than we would wish. The later poems embrace the people who endure, those who stay with us through sorrow and joy. I would like to thank all these people, for, without them, this collection would not have been possible. I am grateful to the following individuals and groups for encouraging and supporting me in my writing life: my husband, Jim; my parents, Buddy and Susan; Diane Frank and the Blue Light Press writing workshop participants; Bill Brown; Terry Lucas; Helga Kidder; Karen Slikker; Jeff Ferrell; Kristi Walker; David Austin; Connie Landreth; my creative writing students; my Open Mic group; Chattanooga Writers Guild; Knoxville Writers Guild; Colrain Poetry Manuscript Conference participants; the Lesley University community. Thank you for being my strong rocks or flowing water. You are the sources of my inspiration.

What Comes of Waiting

1st World Publishing

"KB Ballentine gathers poems into four sections that honor the ancient rhythms of Earth, Air, Water, and Fire. Edge of the Echo explores these elements and how they weave through the human experience and, though we are encompassed by them every day, we don't fully understand them. At the threshold of each season there is a mystic balance between the stones and the stars. The early Celts recognized what we have forgotten: the seasons of the year reflect an invisible geography between nature and the human soul. In this world full of upheaval and clatter, we need more than ever the tenacity of nature-its magic and variety that mends our weariness. This collection of poems invites the elements to speak to us once again"--

Edge of the Echo

Iris Press

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Books by Ballentine, KB