Periods of modular forms and identities between Eisenstein series

Borisov and Gunnells observed in 2001 that certain linear relations between products of two holomorphic weight 1 Eisenstein series had the same structure as the relations between periods of modular forms; a similar phenomenon exists in higher weights. We give a conceptual reason for this observation in arbitrary weight. This involves an unconventional way of expanding the Rankin-Selberg convolution of a cusp form with an Eisenstein series. We also prove a partial result towards understanding the action of a Hecke operator on a product of two Eisenstein series.