What Comes of Waiting

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.

What Comes of Waiting 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. Rock and water, both sources of inspiration.

Praise for What Comes of Waiting, Winner of the 2013 Blue Light Press Book Award

In KB Ballentine’s new book, What Comes of Waiting, poems form a radiant narrative rich with sensory images, noun and verb surprises and the flash of sudden statement, all deeply grounded in the natural world’s power. The poems create a cycle, a journey of four sections. . . .Like life, Ballentine’s collection creates a dark enchantment, but not without color, light and her skillful belief in the transformative power of language. — Bill Brown, The News Inside

Ballentine’s third collection is a symphony of sound and meaning in which its readers will find much beauty and elucidation for many years to come…What Comes of Waiting is a poetry of quest and substance. What Comes of Waiting is its own reward.
— Terry Lucas, If They Have Ears to Hear

In What Comes of Waiting, 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 vision is sometimes devastating, and always full of a sensual beauty, transparent emotions, and language that sings. KB is a master of unusual and expressive verbs, giving texture to inner and outer worlds, with subtext even more powerful than words. Her poems will call you to see the world in a different way.
— Diane Frank, Blackberries in the Dream House