"Sit back, buckle your seatbelts. Resurrection Onions is a roller coaster ride, a journey through darkness and a secrecy of shadows that falls beyond the abyss of expectations. "Resentment answers my prayers." Hope, like slivers of sunrays in a hurricane, bring a sense of joy wrapped in deceit. "...the death count yet to be determined" and "A man I never met fills with me questions." Borders manages to redefine the word family throughout his poems. The reader is compelled, a leash around the neck, drawn to the next page, next poem, where the leash becomes a noose, and we need to know "Frost kills dreams."
"Impersonations came naturally. I loved being someone else, / somewhere else." We are walking in the narrator's shoes, footfall echoes from a past tattooed with strife, an abuse of trust and yet "you gazed into my face, and I knew / for the rest of time I would feel joy." Borders' words do not wallow, do not beg the reader to overlook anything, or offer forgiveness for guilt and shame. Each poem is a snapshot revealing just what the reader needs to know, arranged in a brilliant sequence of retellings. Resurrecting Onions is a travelogue of 'The loneliness that I miss." And suspicions posed in poetic paper, "... filled with her own denial." Self-recriminations leave a trail of metaphors the reader picks up to examine, "Whispers fed my suspicions." Each poem knotted to the next and the previous, generations to span a pathway of raw admissions that slit my resolve and had me hugging each line of verse in gratitude for a sharing, a healing, a collection of poems I will never forget, and will read again and again in the light of love and respect. James holds out his hand; take it, take the journey with him at your side. It will leave you changed."
~ J R Turek 2019 Long Island Poet of the Year; poet, editor, mentor; workshop leader
James Borders is a poet, husband, grandfather, and recovering curmudgeon. After decades of writing pithy satirical poems and grocery lists, he decided to get serious about poetry which has resulted in his first book, Resurrecting Onions. James is a member of Bistro Poetry and the host of Peripatetic Poets based in Columbus, Ohio. Recent poems have appeared in Meniscus Literary Magazine and Madness Muse Press. This book shares the poet's struggles in order to help others suffering abuse to know recovery and a better life is possible and can break the cycle of victimization. They do not deserve the gaslighting or the tearing down of one's self worth. When not writing poetry, James spends his time woodworking, gardening, napping, and trying to spend time with his wife, Evelyn, all while raising three granddaughters. You can reach him at JamesBordersPoetry@Gmail.com
