DRAWING BREATH, poems 94pp. Composed as the twentieth century flowed into the twenty-first, DRAWING BREATH is Tia Ballantine's first full-length book of poems. Rather than a collection, this book is an unusual poetic narrative using geometry, color, space and word to tell the story of a young artist and her wander through wonder when the love of her life abandons her and moves to Tibet. Words, circles, triangles, lines and the space between act together to create an active dialogue that promotes a dimensional yet fluid understanding of loss and the healing power of art. As an atheist, pacifist, and feminist who believes in the power of art and the grace of tolerance, Tia Ballantine created this book to celebrate art and the energy of all that lies between and also as a challenge to religious and societal ideas dictating the 'proper' behavior for women. She is an advocate of free speech, open discussion and kindness, and is ever hopeful that we can (and will) create a more compassionate world that will minimize inequality and celebrate diversity, but DRAWING BREATH is neither a manifesto nor a tale told with a precise beginning, middle and end. It is an open-ended question. Tia Ballantine is a writer and a painter, born in Peru, who has lived here there and everywhere but has most recently moved to the desert near the Mexican border. Her poems have been published in various literary journals and anthologized in Sam Hamill's POETS AGAINST THE WAR and in WINTER GIFTS, published in Scotland by Happenstance Press.