With elements of both poetry and memoir, ¡°Borderlines: An Astral Experience in Poems¡± by Alan Botsford, straddles the boundaries of genre.
Each poem takes the form of a dramatic interior monologue from an imagined viewpoint ¡ª a colleague, student, stranger or social media connection ¡ª conversing with and piecing together moments in the life of one man: Alan, an American poet living and teaching in Japan.
Inspired by Dante Alighieri¡¯s ¡°Divine Comedy,¡± Botsford uses the writer as a medium in his eighth collection of poetry. It started as an experiment with what Botsford describes as ¡°unbidden¡± poetry: ¡°The book is an attempt at bridging the conscious and unconscious worlds,¡± he tells The Japan Times, ¡°in an age where the humanistic imagination is devalued in favor of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) and AI.¡±
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