Dianne Borsenik — Poet, Perfomer, Publisher, Promoter, Producer, and Independent Editor: May 2018

Friday, May 18, 2018

DIANNE'S EKPHRASTIC POETRY TOUR!

Well, to be accurate, it isn't really a tour, unless my driving from Elyria, Ohio, to Erie, Pennsylvania, and then, from Elyria to Cleveland Heights, counts. I have two upcoming readings that will incorporate several brand-new ekphrastic poems: one is today, Friday, May 18, 2018, and the other is next week, Thursday, May 24, 2018!

This evening, I'll be reading poems written especially for Erie Art Museum's current exhibition, the 95th Annual Spring Show, which "presents a juried selection of the best regional art from artists residing within 250 miles of Erie, PA." The event has been described to me as two separate walking tours of the Art Museum, with us reading to the attendees about the pieces that inspired us. I'll be reading with several fine Erie poets, including Chuck Joy, who invited me to join them.

The poems I'll be reading are "Grand Reflections, " after "Grand Reflection," oil on canvas, 2017, by Lydia Owens, and "This Can't Be Oklahoma," after "Yoder Farm," watercolor on paper, by William Daniel Simon. "Grand Reflections" was recently accepted by Main Street Rag for publication, and tonight is the first time I'll be reading it to an audience. I did write a third poem, "Wearing Mail," after "Priority Male Dress Shirt 2018," a piece by Deborah Sementelli, but I won't read it aloud tonight - based on puns and wordplay, it's better on the page than on the stage.

The art in this exhibition is stunningly gorgeous, so if you can come out to see it, do so! You won't be disappointed.

Erie Art Museum
411 State Street (enter on E. 5th Street)
Erie, PA
Friday, May 18, 2018
7 pm to 10 pm

Then, next week, I'll be participating in EKPHRASTACY: Artists Talk + Poets Respond, a series hosted by Heights Arts Gallery in Cleveland Heights, a "cross-pollinating public program that brings together visual artists and local poetry communities." This exhibition is composed of pieces by Heights Arts members, and runs from April 27, 2018 to June 10, 2018. The pieces are varied and wonderful; catch it if you can!

At EKPHRASTACY, I'll be reading poems about several pieces that really spoke to me. I submitted three poems for the show: "Tangled Up in Blues" after the digital print "Tangled Up in Blue" by Janet Mikolajczyk, "A Quotidian God" after "Quotidian Gauge," cardboard, paper, string, by Julianne Edberg, and "Women's World War" after the photo "Women's March on Washington, January,2017" by Joan Lederer. I also wrote "Raga That Plays In Between" after the painting my Diane Farr, "Marion, Waiting," but I wasn't satisfied with it at the time the poems were due, so I held it back. I've since revised and refined it, but I don't expect to read it next week.

I'll be reading with Eris Eady and Siaara Freeman, and we'll be hosted by the new Cleveland Heights Poet Laureate, Damien McClendon. Past EKPHRASTACY events were filled with fun and friendship, and I can't wait to do this one!

EKPHRASTACY
Heights Arts
2175 Lee Road
Cleveland Heights, Ohio
Thursday, May 24, 2018
7 pm to 8:30 pm

I'm grateful for the opportunities I've had to participate in ekphrastic readings; I've found visual art to be a great kickstarter for my creative flow. If you can, come out and dig the vibes tonight in Erie, and next week, in Cleveland Heights. Both evenings promise to be entertaining, enlightening, and filled with visual and vocal art. I'd love to see you there!

The Public Persona

Dianne Borsenik is active in the northern Ohio, Cleveland-area, poetry scene and regional reading circuit, and travels to perform her poetry throughout the Midwest. She is a member of the Ohio Poetry Association and the Haiku Society of America. In 2011, she founded NightBallet Press (where she is M.F.W.I.C.), and has since published over 120 titles for poets across the U.S. In September 2015, she produced BeatStreet Cleveland as part of the National Beat Poetry Festival. In 2023, her book Raga for What Comes Next was studied as part of the Modern & Contemporary American Poetry course at Muskingum University in New Concord, Ohio. Borsenik spent a day at MU to discuss the book with the students and did a featured reading from her new collection of poems, Flight of Honey. Flight of Honey was published by Luchador Press in May, 2023. Her poetry has been published in hundreds of journals, magazines, anthologies, and more, including Main Street Rag, Chiron Review, The Offbeat, Rosebud, Slipstream, Lilliput Review, bottle rockets, Voices of Cleveland, Poems-For-All, Haiku World: An International Poetry Almanac, and The Magnetic Poetry® Book of Poetry. Her poetry has also appeared in numerous galleries and projects, including Cleveland Heights Arts Gallery's "Ekphrastacy," the Wick Poetry Center's "Speak Peace - American Voices Respond to Vietnamese Children's Paintings," the 2019, 2020, and 2022 Edith Chase Symposiums, Amy Mothersbaugh's Studio 2091, & S. A. Griffin's cross-country project "The Poetry Bomb." A copy of her haiku chapbook Blue Graffiti (Crisis Chronicles Press, 2011) is in the Decatur Haiku Collection at Millikin University. In 2016, Crisis Chronicles Press published her first full-length collection of poetry, Age of Aquarius, and in January, 2019, Stubborn Mule Press published her second full-length collection, Raga for What Comes Next, which was released at the "We're No Angels" event at the acclaimed cocktail bar Speak of the Devil in Lorain, Ohio. In September of 2019, Stubborn Mule Press published a four-woman anthology, Heaven We Haven't Yet Dreamed, containing 23 pages of new poetry by Borsenik. She has also performed her poetry with 2 Chefs and a Beat - "Poetic Justice Edition" - at Porco Lounge and Tiki Room in Cleveland, Ohio. Actor Jonathan Frid (Barnabas on television's Dark Shadows) used three of her poems in his one-man touring show Genesis of Evil. Her poem "Let's Get It On" (from her chapbook Thunderclap Amen) was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. In 2013 and again in 2014, she won first place in the Best Cleveland Poem Competition. She has taught poetry at Southview Middle School (Lorain, OH), given workshops at Lit Youngstown's Literary Festival, and serves annually as a juror in the Cleveland Institute of Art's Scholastic Writing Awards. In Summer 2015, her poem "Disco" was selected by the Youngstown Summer Festival of the Arts to appear on its reusable tote bags, and Lit Youngstown printed the poem on their tee shirts, which makes her feel like a rock star. She believes in the musicality of language and the originality of expression in poetry, and continues to seek publication in journals, magazines, chapbooks, and anthologies. She is willing to travel for readings, to present workshops pertaining to small press publishing, to serve on panels about editing and publishing, and to participate with her press at independent literary festivals. Contact Dianne at dborsenik@gmail.com.

The Personal Shizzle

Dianne Borsenik was born Dianne Lynn Keith on Wednesday, February 2 (yes, Groundhog's Day), 1955 in Oberlin, Ohio, during a waxing gibbous moon. She is the Zodiac sign Aquarius and the Chinese Zodiac sign the Sheep. In 1959 her parents moved to Elyria, Ohio, about thirty minutes west of Cleveland, along with daughters Dianne and her younger sister. Dianne grew up roaming Cascade Park: a jewel of green trees, Black River, and East and West Falls in the heart of Elyria, and bookstores, wherever she could find them. In 1977 she met James Borsenik, and in 1979, married him. Their honeymoon was made especially exciting by Hurricane David hitting Florida while their car was sitting disabled in a Kissimmee parking lot. She kept her maiden name and added (unhyphenated) Borsenik. People the world over know her by the initials DLKB. Sadly, Dianne's beloved husband James died July 1, 2023. She misses him profoundly. James and Dianne were blessed with several dog-children over the years: Nickolas Wonder, Bahloo, and Dory Kiss Me Quick; she is still grieving her much-beloved Bodhisattva and little Michel-Angelo. In 2020, Speak of the Devil in Lorain, Ohio, created a tasty cocktail and named it "Borsenik's Law" -- ("That which is poured must be consumed.") She is inordinately pleased to have a listing in the IMDb for photographs she took at the Lix & Kix Poetry Extravaganza, which appeared in the documentary "Twisted Sisters." Favorite Dianne things include Toronto, the Black Hills, Led Zeppelin (emphasis on Robert Plant), steak, lobster, shrimp cocktail, asparagus, Star Trek (emphasis on Leonard Nimoy/Spock), the Monkees (emphasis on Peter Tork), apocalyptic and disaster movies, the Weather Channel, the English Royals, reading (especially biographies, nonfiction), sleeping with the windows open, going barefoot, carnations, honeysuckle, rap music (Snooooooop), riding in a convertible yeah, we're rolling with the top down, strong coffee, sweet tea, Blackstrap Rum, spicy Bloody Marys, Old Fashions made with Old Overholt Rye, the internet, getting her hands dirty growing herbs and flowers, floating in the pool, Tennessee Williams, travel, thunderstorms, Glenn Miller, Frank Sinatra, Nine Inch Nails-the Closer album, Andrea Bocelli, Devo, Ravi Shankar, the Beatles, the Doors, Pink Floyd, and of course, poetry.