| Gathering Stones KB Ballentine ISBN 978-0-9658950-9-5 Celtic Cat Publishing, Knoxville “this is the night when girls on the cusp of womanhood long for a chance to dance with the king of the faeries.” These lines from “Midsummer’s Eve” illustrate the strength and power of KB Ballentine’s poetry. The poem brought her a Rosenberg award in 2007 and appears as a centerpiece in the book, Gathering Stones. Only a few pages separate “Midsummer’s Eve” from “Brigid,” a prayer to the patron saint and protector of women. This apparent conflict is only one example of the complex layering of images which Ballentine presents in her first book of poems. The many diverse aspects of the land, the people, the culture and the history of Ireland allow for no other approach. Ballentine presents Christian and Pre-Christian, Protestant and Catholic, faerie and saint, seacoast and upland farms, poverty and prosperity. The result is a mosaic of a land as beautiful as time itself. In section one, A Time to Speak, Ballentine presents a view of the landscape and the people. From “Winter Solstice at Newgrange,” readers view the Pagan aspects of contemporary Irish culture, vibrant beside the Celtic cross and prayers to Christian saints. Section two, A Time to Die, gives us a historical view of the Emerald Isle. Layer upon layer of history emphasizes conflict, struggle, and mortality. From the Viking raid on “a place where innocence died” in the poem “Out of the North” to “Lessons in Ardoyne,” a recounting of the bombing of Holy Cross School in Belfast, the author ponders “who will go home and who under ground?” The Norse raids, the conquest by England, the potato famine, and the Troubles – the violent conflict between Protestant and Catholic – all show struggle and death as integral to the history of this land. In “Beal na mBath,” perhaps the most poignant poem in this section, we hear of the assassination of Michael Collins, “The Big Fella,” by his own followers. Like objects in a peat bog, dug up at varying depths by archaeologists, these images are layered but they emerge more like islands in the fog of the Irish coast. A Time to Dance, the final section in this triad gives us the beauty and culture of contemporary Ireland and its descendants in the new world. As one of those descendants, the author emerges from the backdrop and we see the first use of the word “I” in the collection. She speaks of how “Pipes, drums, strings swell the air, drown the natter,” in “McGann’s Pub, Doolin,” but presents a melancholy dance at that. Joy and beauty permeate this last section, but it is a mature joy and beauty. It follows the death of innocence presented in “Out of the North,” and indeed in all of section two. Neither author nor reader can regain the idyllic landscape of the early poem “Midsummer’s Eve.” Ballentine’s book resonates with the haunting culture and mystery of Ireland, past and present. The poems blend mirth and melancholy, joy and sadness, fiction and fact, mystery and fable in a celebration of Celtic life and legend not soon to be forgotten. This is a must read for all lovers of good poetry, especially those with red hair, a wee bit-o-temper and a love of the Shamrock. -Reviewed by Ray Zimmerman |