Some Amazing News! I'll be "In the Company of Angels"

                                             

                                                      poster design by Kurt Hernon


Hello, everyone! I know it's been a minute since I last posted. Losing my sweet baby James took quite a bit of juice out of me, and I still miss him like crazy. I always will.

The folks at Speak of the Devil cocktail bar have been incredibly supportive of me through all of this. Kurt, one of the owners of SotD, has been nagging me to do a poetry performance show there ever since the first one titled "We're No Angels" five years ago, which featured Dave Lucas, Ohio Poet Laureate (2018-2019), John Burroughs, U.S. Beat Poet Laureate (2022-2023), and me. It was well-received, and the poster for that show is framed and hanging in one of the restrooms at SotD.

I'm very stoked to announce that I will be presenting and emceeing a new poetry performance show at Speak of the Devil in October! It's called "In the Company of Angels" and will feature three outstanding and amazing poet-performers who will knock your socks off!

(Many thanks to the photographers whose photos I've used for these performers. If you send me your names, I'll happily and gratefully credit you for them.)

Featured are:

Christine Howey, author of and performer in Exact Change (A true story of boy meets girl. Inside one person.) and I Have a Poem About That (Crisis Chronicles, 2022)

Christine is a performance poet, actor, award-winning theater critic (named the Best Critic in Ohio by the Press Club of Cleveland and the Society of Professional Journalists), playwright, and journalist. She has earned numerous awards for writing humorous radio and tv spots. She served as Cleveland Heights Poet Laureate from 2016 to 2018. Her one-person show about her transgender journey, Exact Change, had its world premiere at Cleveland Public Theater in 2014, and has since been performed at Playhouse Square in Cleveland and at the 2015 New York International Fringe Festival, among other venues. There is now a movie version. Her performances are absolutely delightful, as she is very expressive and often uses humor in her poetry. (Bio credit - some of this was taken from Literary Cleveland's website.)

Marcel Fable Price, author of New American Monarch (New Michigan Press, 2024) This is his first full-length collection.

Marcel, who served as Grand Rapids, Michigan Poet Laureate (2017-2020), is a multi-hyphenate, self-directed, intuitive creative whose primary medium resides somewhere between oratory expression and creative writing. He "truly believes that the mortar to our humanity is shared experience, and without intentionally searching for ways to connect, our individual gospels will only remain surface hymns." Fable's brand-new book (releases October 8), New American Monarch, is a delightfully immersive experience, one to be slowly taken in, not consumed all at once. In this collection, he addresses growing up with a loving, supportive mother and an absent father, what it means to be masculine, urban culture, issues of racism and his own ongoing metamorphosis. (Bio credit - some of this was taken from a biography provided by Price.)

Ray McNiece, author of the soon-to-be-published Bone Key Sutra (Sea Story Press), Breath Burns Away (Red Giant Books, 2019), and Poem for Cleveland (Red Giant Books, 2023)

Ray has earned a national reputation as a poet and performer for almost two decades through his solo theater pieces, his poetry and music shows, his captaining of two National Poetry Slam Championship teams, and his yearly countrywide tours of performance poems, stories, and songs. He fronts the blues rock band Tongue-in-Groove. McNiece embodies the Beat poetry experience, and has toured twice with Beat poet legend Lawrence Ferlinghetti. The Orlando Sentinel called him "a modern day descendent of Woody Guthrie." Bone Key Sutra is an intriguing and richly satisfying mixture of memoir, essay, poetry, song lyrics and a mighty profusion of haiku that bring into sharp focus the everyday and every-moment of McNiece's continuing journey. (Bio credit - some of this was taken from McNiece's website.)

                               In the Company of Angels, indeed!

This show is FREE FREE FREE!

When

Wednesday, October 23 at 7 p.m.

(real time, not poet's time, so don't be late!)

Where

The venue is the magnificent, the renowned, Speak of the Devil cocktail bar:

201 W. 5th Street, Lorain, Ohio.

This is downtown, very near the Palace Theater.
There's free street parking, plus there's a free parking lot in the back of SotD, accessible off W. 6th Street.

Why

Because we can!

I hope you'll join us for this very special, one-time-only evening of poetry performance, fabulous cocktails, friendship, and fun!

SWEET NEWS

I have some exceedingly sweet news! My latest collection of poems, Flight of Honey, is being published by Luchador Press! 

With a stunning cover photo by Marcy and Doug Ritzert, the book has been beautifully designed by Jason Ryberg in Missouri. Many thanks to Marcy and Doug, and to Jason Ryberg. Also, much gratitude to everyone who graciously wrote a blurb for me. 

(Backstory to the cover photo: I was reading at Muskingum University in March of this year and afterwards, a woman introduced herself - Marcy Ritzert, who worked at the University. She said that Robin Mullet, a friend of hers, had contacted her and told her she should attend the reading. Marcy said Robin was a fellow beekeeper. I asked her if she had any photos of bees or hives; I was looking for the right photo for my book. She sent me several that day, and as soon as I saw this photo, I knew it was the one!)

Once Jason has posted a link to buy Flight of Honey on his website, I'll insert it into this post. Of course, I'll have copies to sell as well, but we must support our small presses. 

I'll be feature reading my poems from Flight of Honey this coming Saturday, May 13, at The Switchboard in Toledo. You can find the details here. I may not have the book in hand by then (he's ordering them to be printed today), but I can certainly mail them out to anyone who orders them at the reading. 

I'll also be reading a couple of poems from FOH at the Songs for Wild Ohio anthology poetry reading in Kent on May 20.

I hope you'll come celebrate with me at these events! I'm looking forward to seeing you!

Gratitude This Thanksgiving

I'm feeling very grateful this November. Since my post in September, a number of groovy things have happened. 

(photo by Kari Gunter-Seymour)

On October 15, I traveled to Coshocton, Ohio, to participate in the final I Thought I Heard a Cardinal Sing: Ohio's Appalachian Voices reading at the gorgeous Johnson-Humrickhouse Museum. I also spent some treasured time with two very dear and generous friends, Robin and Dick Mullet, and their sweet little Nora. 

James and I have been celebrating autumn: we had delicious meals at White Oaks and Antica and enjoyed a clambake at Jake's on the Lake.

 

November's Lit Youngstown Fall Literary Festival was fabulous beyond words! It was so good to see so many dear friends and to make so many new ones. The programming was excellent, and I thoroughly enjoyed the readings and presentations I attended. Much gratitude to Karen Schubert for making it all happen. I was honored to participate by giving my "NAG the Competiton: A Guide to Titles and Marketing" presentation. Next year's Festival is already on my calendar! 

(photo by Melanie Buonavolonta)

My poem "Up the Mountain" is in this copy of Slipstream. Many thanks to editors Robert Borgatti, Livio Farallo, and Dan Sicoli. It's such a beautiful magazine. This is their Bread-Blood-Beats themed issue. "Up the Mountain" includes the line Blood doesn't always call to blood.

I'm overjoyed to report I received a message that my poem "In the Thick of It" will be included in the upcoming issue of Pudding Magazine! Thank you, C.W. Everett, Kathleen Burgess, and Rose Smith for giving me the opportunity to be a part of Pudding's final issue.
                          
HOORAY! I finished my Winking Lizard Tour of Beers and got my Winking Lizard jacket (and a $25 Winking Lizard gift card)! Why am I so excited about it? It was one of my goals for the year after I retired in 2020. That —ah—didn't work out. It's nice to finally achieve what I set out to do almost three years ago. For the record, it took one hundred different beers over the course of the year (2022)!

                                                                              

                            

For something different, James and I went to the Empty Bowls by the Lake event at the Avon Lake High School this past weekend. It was fantastic! For a donation of twenty dollars each, we received our choice of a pottery bowl and unlimited soup and bread. There were twenty-one different (and oh, so savory!) soups from local restaurants and bars, and there were multiple tables of pottery bowls to choose from. In addition, there was live entertainment and a very impressive array of baskets for silent auction. All proceeds were to benefit the Second Harvest Food Bank and other local food banks. I couldn't get enough of Rocky River's Market's "Signature Chicken Paprikash" and James loved the shrimp and lobster chowder from Avon's Longhorn Steakhouse. 

James chose the "flame" bowl, and I chose the pastel one. Kudos and many thanks to the artists who created them.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and James and I will be enjoying a tasty take-out turkey dinner from Fat Cat's in Tremont. We both are truly grateful for all of you who make our world a better place with your love, generosity, friendship, encouragement, assistance, and acceptance. Salute!
 

                                         ("Borsenik's Law," Speak of the Devil, October 2022) 

   

Update on Summer and Fall Festivities 2022

  At the Ohio State Fair, August, photo by Sandra Feen


Best of all this summer, I’ve been overjoyed to connect with new friends and to reconnect with dear friends I’ve missed seeing for two and a half years.

  Jack & Kathleen Burgess, Chilicothe, OH, July

  Jonie McIntire

 

Jo Ann Buzulencia & her photograph (I wrote an ekphrastic poem about it)
Youngstown, July

 Nik Macioci & Sandra Feen

 Sandra Gill

  John Burroughs (the U. S. Beat Poet Laureate)

                *     *     *

The Poetry Intensives I’m attending each month in Youngstown has turned me on to a lot of new adventures in poetry, and I’m grateful to have the opportunity to meet so many new friends.

                *     *     *

Inkubator in Cleveland was fantastic. I attended the sessions

Word Weaving and the Web by Diane Kendig, Jeremy Jusek, Raja Belle Freeman & Laura Kincer

The Music of Poems by Robert Milter & Molly Fuller  

How to Grow a Multi-Faceted Diamond: Writing the Poem Sequence by Rikki Santer, Rose Smith, Sandra Feen, & Linda Fuller-Smith

All three sessions were fascinating and informative.

I’m really looking forward to Lit Youngstown’s Fall Literary Festival next month (October) — I’ll be presenting a talk on ways to be inventive when giving poems and books titles. All of the sessions sound interesting. I’d love to see you there!

                *     *     *

I’m happy and grateful to have poems accepted for the following publications; many thanks to the editors for giving my poems a home!

Slipstream — “Up the Mountain”
Gasconade Review —  “Ice Cubes”
                                         “What You Need”
                                         “Heat”
An as-yet-untitled David Bowie tribute anthology (Sybaritic Press) — “Serious Moonlight”

                *     *     *

I was thrilled to have been a part of these events — a huge thank you to the hosts for inviting me!

The Edith Chase Symposium Birds of the Cuyahoga reading — KSU Architecture Building, Kent, OH

Lit Youngstown Celebrates 40 Years of the Women’s Artist Show at the YWCA, Youngstown, OH

Visible Voice Books, Cleveland, OH — featured reading along with Diane Vogel Ferri, Steve Thomas, and Barbara Marie Minney

Noise Complaint at The Warehouse in Portsmouth, OH

The Poetry Showcase at the 2022 Ohio State Fair  

30^th Annual Erie’s Blues & Jazz Festival as part of the 100 Thousand Poets for Change, Erie, PA   — Thasia Lunger had the brilliant idea for the "slide" photo!                                

and two I Thought I Heard a Cardinal Sing readings, one in Marietta, OH, and one in Lewis Center, OH, with one upcoming in Coshocton, OH, next month (October)

  

                *     *     *

I was amazed to discover (through Google; yes, I Google myself) that I have an IMDb listing! It’s because I contributed some photographs to the documentary “Twisted Sisters - Go to Daddy.” Sadly, they were of a local woman who was murdered by her mother. The young woman had read at open mic for the Lix & Kix Poetry Extravaganza (co-hosted by John Burroughs and me) some years ago, and you know me — I’m always taking photographs.

               *     *     *

  DLKB books at Visible Voice, Cleveland, June

   
           *     *     *

I’ve continued to write poems for my manuscript titled Flight of Honey, including the titular poem, along with two ekphrastic poems, a poem about Elyria (where I live), and a poem about my husband having an “otherworldly experience.”  Who knows where my mind will wander next?

I leave you with this sage observation:

The New Dianne Borsenik

Behold the new Dianne Borsenik, post-retirement, post-pandemic, post-redhead! I still do a double-take when I look in the mirror, but I like having long silver hair. 

I have settled quite comfortably into retirement, and I don't miss anything about work except seeing my friends every day. There wasn't much to report in my poetry life for the past two years, but here in 2022 things are looking great and it's time to update!

I'm delirious with joy to report I just received my copy of I Thought I Heard a Cardinal Sing: Ohio's Appalachian Voices in the mail, containing my poem "Fall Out." Edited by Ohio Poet Laureate Kari Gunter-Seymour and published by Sheila-Na-Gig Editions, this gorgeous anthology contains poems by dozens and dozens of fine Ohio poets, and I want to read it cover to cover. (You can purchase your own copy here.)

I'll be reading from this book at three scheduled readings:

April 14, 2022, 7 -9 pm at the McDonough Auditorium at Marietta College, Marietta, Ohio 
                           

June 23, 2022, 8 - 10 pm at the National Federation of State Poetry Societies conference in Lewis Center, Ohio, sponsored by the Ohio Poetry Association. 

October 15, 2022, 2 - 4 pm at the Johnson-Humrickhouse Museum in Coshocton, Ohio

(For more detailed information, or to see the other readings that are scheduled, go here.)

I haven't read to a live audience in over two years, so I'm really looking forward to getting out and about and seeing my mid-Ohio and southern Ohio friends again!

I found myself unable to write during 2020 and 2021, right up to December 4, 2021, when my poetry came back to me with a vengeance. Since then, I've written sixteen poems, and sometimes it seems as if my fingers won't type fast enough to keep up with the vision in my head.

One of my new poems, "Up the Mountain," has been accepted by Slipstream for inclusion in their Bread/Blood/Beats issue, to be published this summer. Slipstream is a beautiful journal, and I'm excited and grateful to be a part of it.

"Up the Mountain" has also been chosen by Lit Cleveland for a staged reading during the Cleveland Humanities Festival at the Cleveland Public Library, April 9, 2022, at 3 pm. This staged reading examines the theme of "How Do We Talk to Each Other?" and will feature professional actors performing the chosen pieces. I can't wait to see the actor(s) "do" my poem. 

I've been active in other poetry events, as well. I'll be judging a "lilac poem" contest for Lorain this spring. I wrote a blurb for Alex Gildzen's new book Arroyo Chamisa: poems rescued from a blog, I submitted a proposal to Lit Youngstown for their Fall Literary Festival, I submitted a specially-themed poem for the Edith Chase Symposium in Kent, Ohio. and I have several poems out to various journals for their consideration. Freed from the constraints of being on call for my employment, I joyfully signed up for and am attending the monthly Poetry Intensives series of workshops conducted by Lit Youngstown. These workshops are great! Many thanks to Karen Schubert for hosting them, and to the various workshop leaders for sharing their writing insights. 

I've missed seeing my friends and I hope to catch up with YOU, soon!

I love my time being my own. So many possibilities and opportunities abound . . . viva retirement!

Viva Retirement!

*

Dianne Borsenik is retired! The Big Day was January 31, 2020, and as of February 2, 2020 (0-2-0-2-2-0-2-0), I am a sixty-five year old retiree on Medicare, and I'm ready to rrrrrrrrrumble! The future is wide-open now, with time to devote to all those things I love most. I've already written three "retirement" poems, based on Wallace Stevens' Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird. They are

13 Ways of Looking at Retirement, With Only 19 Working Days to Go
13 Ways of Looking at Retirement from the Other Side (After the Party)
13 Ways of Looking at Retirement on Yet Another Monday Off Work

And, I've written a poem for all my friends, in celebration, with love.

*

Ice Cubes

Friends are ice cubes in the cocktail of life.
We chill together, tinkle and clink our way

out of the shaker and into the glass, mix
with sass and effervescence, irreverence

and unabashed joy; we entertain one long-
pour, united in spirit, no matter the garnish.

Crush us, we stay frosty; swizzle-stir us, we
go with the flow. We get juicy, we get saucy,

we get what it means to melt together as
we age, diluting the bad times, enhancing

the good times, just enough bump and
tumble to let them know we were here.

Friends are ice cubes in the cocktail of life.
This is our celebration. This is our Happy Hour.

*

The poems mentioned above are part of a new poetry manuscript I'm working on, also titled Ice Cubes. Other poems in it include

What You Need
I Tell James Not to Hit Jesus as We Circle the Walmart Parking Lot on Halloween
Lori Says Her Father Liked to Camp, But Doesn't Know He'd Want to Be a Bullet
Coming from the Cafeteria, I See Gerard Butler Walking with His Head Down, and I Wonder

*
I'm excited about what's possible in the days, weeks, months, and years to come. Some of my plans include the following appearances:


Poet-in-Residence at Loganberry Books
13015 Larchmere Blvd, Cleveland, OH
Saturday, April 11, 2020
12:00 to 4:00 p.m.


Featured Writer at the Ohioana Book Festival
Columbus Metropolitan Library
96 S. Grant Ave., Columbus, OH
Saturday, April 25, 2020
10:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.


Featured Reader at Words & Wine
Steele Mansion Inn
358 Mentor Ave., Painesville, OH
Wednesday, May 20, 2020
6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

*

NightBallet Press is active, with a number of manuscripts being formatted and edited, with an eye to publishing one title a month.

*
I'm acting as a judge for a local poetry contest. I have an independent editing job, aside from the press. I just applied for a fellowship. I have poems accepted for publication in Chiron Review (summer issue), Goddess (a National Beat Poetry women's anthology - this year), and What But the Music (a Baby Boomer music anthology - late spring).

Both James and I celebrated big birthdays this month of February (he turned 70 years old), and we've celebrated Chinese New Year, Valentine's Day, and Mardi Gras, as well. We had a retirement party at Speak of the Devil, and I feature-read at Poetry & Open Mic at the Arabica Bistro in Amherst, Ohio. Went along on a road trip to Toledo and saw/read with friends, and on another road trip visited Muskingham University to participate in a panel and classroom study group. I joined the Winking Lizard Tour of Beers, and I'm forty-six beers away from a golf umbrella...and only ninety-six beers away from a Winking Lizard jacket! LOL

I'm keeping busy. I'm having fun.

All we need now is for it to warm up enough to put the top down on the convertible!
 
Viva Retirement!

    *

DIANNE BORSENIK IS RETIRING!

I can't believe it, but my retirement is only one week and one day away! There will be no more "wearin' o' the scrubs" for this Irish lass after 1 pm next Friday! I would be honored and ecstatic if YOU would join me in joyous celebration at Speak of the Devil--that's next Friday, January 31st!

Heaven We Haven't Yet Dreamed + Book Tour 2019 - 2020

I am delighted to announce my new book, Heaven We Haven't Yet Dreamed, is published by Stubborn Mule Press!


Heaven We Haven't Yet Dreamed contains sections of 23 pages of poetry each from Dianne Borsenik, Juliet Cook, Puma Perl, and Jeanette Powers.

In Heaven We Haven't Yet Dreamed, I continue the poetry journey that began in Raga for What Comes Next (published by Stubborn Mule Press in January, 2019), with many new poems written this year specifically for this collection. I actually wrote one of them four days after the deadline for the manuscript!

Heaven We Haven't Yet Dreamed features gorgeous cover art "Alone at Night" by Amy  Scherer and superb edits by Linzi Garcia. This book is 116 pages long, and is only $15 (plus $3 for postage)! In the words of my publisher, you will be reading the works of "four radical femme poets"! Oooh, baby!

I've included the PayPal link here, and I've also posted a PayPal link on this website (right column). You can order the book directly from me, and I'll be happy to sign it for you!

I've just returned from Yellow Springs, Ohio, where I attended the Ohio Poetry Association's Sun & Moon Poetry Festival at Glen Helen Nature Preserve--the event was fabulous! We read, workshopped, and hiked our poems. Earlier this week, I also performed at the Dairy Barn in Athens, Ohio, and at Poetry Plus at Art on Madison in Lakewood. I'm honored to have several more poetry events scheduled in September, October, and November of this year. I'm taking a break from reading very far from home during December, January, and February (I do have one reading in Amherst, Ohio, in February), but I'll begin traveling again in March. I  hope you'll join me at these events to celebrate the living art of poetry!


Dianne's 2019 - 2020 Book Tour


FireFish Festival 2019

Saturday
September 21, 2019
1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Downtown Lorain, Ohio

Poetry performances on stage — Dianne Borsenik, Kelly Boyer Sagert, Debra Rose, and others to be announced.  Dianne will be reading from 2 to 2:20 p.m.


Art & Performance Poetry

Friday
October 25, 2019
6 P.M.

Art & Performance Center of West Toledo
2702 W. Sylvania Ave.
Toledo, OH

Dianne Borsenik will be reading from her two new Stubborn Mule Press books, Raga for What Comes Next, and Heaven We Haven't Yet Dreamed. Leonard Kress will also feature read. Jonie McIntire hosts this event.


Broadsides & Ephemera


Thursday
November 14, 2019
7 p.m.

Loganberry Books
13015 Larchmere Blvd.
Cleveland, OH

Dianne Borsenik will read from her new books, Raga for What Comes Next and Heaven We Haven't Yet Dreamed.


Borderlands: Poetry on the Edge


Saturday
November 16, 2019
2 to 4 p.m.

Main Street Books
104 N. Main Street
Mansfield, OH
Host Llalan Fowler

Dianne Borsenik will read from her new Stubborn Mule Press books, Raga for What Comes Next and Heaven We Haven't Yet Dreamed. John Burroughs will read from his new Venetian Spider Press book, Rattle and Numb. Open mic will follow; light refreshments in attendance.


Streetlight Imaginations: Poets Read from Recent Books

Saturday
November 23, 2019
2 pm to 4:30 pm

Cuyahoga County Public Library
South Euclid-Lyndhurst Branch

NightBallet Press travels to South Euclid, OH, to co-present, along with John Burroughs and Crisis Chronicles Press, a selection of NBP and CCP poets. Hear from eight poets, all with recently published books.

From NBP:

Karen Schubert
Lisa & Sean Thomas Dougherty
Julio Montalvo Valentin


From CCP:

Nick Gardner
Nicole Hennessy
Cat Russell
Elaine Schleiffer


The Poetry Forum

Monday
November 25, 2019
7:00 p.m.

Bossy Grrls Pin-Up Joint
2598 N. High St.
Columbus, OHHosted by Steve Abbott & Rose M. Smith
What fun it will be to see all my Columbus area friends again at this longest-running poetry series in Ohio! I will be reading from my two new (2019) books, Raga for What Comes Next, and Heaven We Haven't Yet Dreamed...plus, I promise, some brand-new poems written just for the occasion!

Poetry and Open Mic at the Bistro

Saturday
February 8, 2020
5 pm to 7:30 pm

Arabica
254 Park Ave.
Amherst, OH

Theme: Celebration!
Dianne Borsenik will feature read from her new Stubborn Mule Press books Raga for What Comes Next and Heaven We Haven't Yet Dreamed. Open mic will follow. Hosted by Debra Rose.

Music & Drama Club of Cleveland

Thursday
May 14, 2020

Details to be announced


Words & Wine

Wednesday
May 20, 2020

Painesville, OH
Hosted by Margie DeLong

details to be announced

RESURRECTION RIVER READING 2019

Friday, June 7, in Kent, Ohio, the 2019 Edith Chase Symposium "Resurrection River" reading will take place, featuring

Dianne Borsenik
Cameron Gorman
L. J. Graham
Ursula Williams
Carly Sachs
Mary Greer
Clarissa Jakobsons
Laura Grace Weldon
Luba Gawur
Justine Horning
David Hassler
Pauline Thornton
Terry Murcko
Jonathan Graham
Toomas Tubalkain
Michael Whitmore
Charles Malone
Barbara Sabol
RC Wilson
James Sutman
Stephanie L. Stearns
Jeremy Proehl
Steve Thomas
Dave Lucas
Frank Rosen
Adam Brodsky
Maj Ragain, as read by LuAnn Csernotta
David J. Adams
Diane Lueptow

I am honored to be reading with this fine collection of poets from across Ohio. This performance, recognizing and honoring the Cuyahoga River, will begin at 4 p.m. sharp in the Wick Poetry Park (located by the Wick Poetry Center, 126 S. Lincoln Street, Kent). Parking is available across the street in the parking lot of the Kent State Fashion Museum. In case of rain, we'll be gathering at the Wick Poetry Center.

This event will also feature the release of the new Resurrection River Poems anthology. The cover design and art, shown in the photograph above, is by Rachel Bishop and Audrey Bishop. Many, many, thanks to RC Wilson, who has deftly organized both the anthology and the reading, and who has given me the opportunity to be a part of both.

There will be an Opening Reception for River Stanzas at the Kent State Downtown Art Gallery, 141 E. Main Street, Kent, following the reading. The Opening Reception is from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Please join us for a truly remarkable afternoon of poetry!

RAGA FOR WHAT COMES NEXT

I am SO excited about this news...
as we move forward into this New Year, my full-length collection of poetry,
Raga for What Comes Next,
has been accepted by Stubborn Mule Press
and is slated for publication this month, January, 2019!

This is the gorgeous front cover, designed by Jeanette Powers, photo by Jon Lee Grafton!

Raga for What Comes Next is seventy-four pages long, and contains forty-eight poems separated into four sections: Sitar, Shenai, Bansuri, and Tabla. The poems include many of the ekphrastic pieces I've written in response to art in Heights Arts Gallery and the Erie Arts Gallery. Also included are the poems "Sitting Next to Paul McCartney in Bomba's One Week After the Autumnal Equinox," "Paul Simon Sees Angels in the Architecture, But I See Scooby Doo in a Flake of Rust," and the performance piece "If the Son of a Motherless Goat Tries to Stare You Down." Many of the poems contained within are recent and unpublished. When Stubborn Mule accepted my manuscript on December 22, it was like getting an early Christmas present. When I hold them in my hands at my book release January 24, it will be like getting an early birthday present—I'll turn sixty-four on February 2!


The Color of Oxygen

"Singing is like a celebration of oxygen."—Björk
Tree releases oxygen,
which becomes a raga.

Earth sings in tabla of thunder,
the bansuri of wind.

Birds pluck the strings, multi-tonic
melody in ascent, descent.

Each time it rains, another
improvisation blooms.




Nicole Robinson read the manuscript and wrote this about Raga:

Dianne Borsenik’s Raga for What Comes Next offers a framework of poems that burn with wit and wisdom. We learn to rely on the improvisational style of these poems: their turns, their moments between moments where – upon a closer look – empty is not so empty. Even a discarded bottle has “a shaft of sunlight” to refill it. Borsenik shows us how we all have an “unspooling of identity,” both individually and as a community. But she also reminds us – with sharp imagery and musical riffs that lift from the page – that we return to ourselves and must wait for what comes next. Fortunately, we don’t have to wait in the unknown alone. We have these poems – that sing with music, art, and pop-culture – to show us the joy, beauty, and fun that exists in our waiting.—Nicole Robinson, poet, writer

And Puma Perl wrote:

Ragas, jazz, Dylan, Björk, oxygen, Japanese legends, Lennon, McCartney, origami, Tarantino, Michelle Obama. I could go on in listing the inspirations Borsenik provides, tied together in four parts, each one an instrument that contributes to the rhythms. From the sitar to the tabla, the poems read like a double album, one you will play many times, finding something new with each listen. As Borsenik concludes, “the real prize is not knowing.”—Puma Perl, poet, author of Retrograde
Many thanks to Jeanette Powers and Jason Ryberg for this sparkly miracle! I love the cover, and the formatting is beautiful and sleek. We are working on final edits now. The plan is to have it in my hands in time for my big reading in Lorain, Ohio, on January 24th, 2019.

 

We're No Angels will be presented at Speak of the Devil between 6:30 and 8:00 pm on Thursday, January 24th, 2019. Speak of the Devil, a craft-cocktail bar, is located at 201 West 5th Street, Lorain, Ohio. The team behind the bar at Speak of the Devil excels at their craft, and the drinks will make you think you're in heaven. You also may order kick-ass pizza at SotD.

We're No Angels is a free event and is open to the public. You'll want to get there early, as there are only so many seats and tables available!

We're No Angels will be a poetry performance, not a reading! We are John Burroughs (nationally touring poet and founder of Crisis Chronicles Press), Dianne Borsenik (poet, publisher/editor at NightBallet Press), and Dave Lucas ( current Poet Laureate of Ohio). Together, we plan to rock your world!

This will be a landmark event; it will be Ohio Poet Laureate Dave Lucas' first reading this far west of Cleveland!

We are also planning a very important announcement concerning...well, we don't want to spoil the surprise. You'll just have to be there to hear it.

I am grateful for all the opportunities this new year offers. I am grateful for Stubborn Mule Press and Speak of the Devil. I am grateful for dear friends and loved ones. I am grateful for James, who has made my life a happy raga. I am grateful to be alive, well, and writing poetry another year.

My wish is that your New Year sparkles with bright sequins of love, light, and opportunity, and that the confetti of happiness and dreams-come-true inundates you. Happy 2019, my friends.

(Below is the PayPal button if you wish to pre-order Raga for What Comes Next.
The price is fifteen dollars. As soon as it's up, I'll also include a link to buy it directly from Stubborn Mule Press.) NOTE! 1/13/19: Raga for What Comes Next is printed and in my hands! If you order a copy, I'll sign it and pop it right in the mail! So EXCITED! Thank you!