{"product_id":"a-variable-sense-of-things-9781737510482","title":"A Variable Sense of Things","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe teacher assigns her fourth-grade students to write \"poems as lovely as trees,\" and they go at it, these students whose aspirations are a display board at the county fair. Young Ron McFarland takes the subject to heart, and from his pencil unfurl leaves, sturdy branches, sunlight between the branches, possibly fruit and a wayward kite, and most certainly a nest in which birds burst with song. McFarland, in this and previous collections, goes far beyond trees. I see McFarland coloring the world, a sort of John Constable, beginning with trees and then with tenderness and art making it all come alive.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e- Gary Soto, author of \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eNew and Selected Poems\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e, a National Book Award Finalist, and \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eOne Kind of Faith\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIf you were to sit down with Ron McFarland (kitchen counter, seminar table, barstool), you would soon understand that he knows a very great deal about a whole lot of things and can talk about any of them with savvy and erudition, mostly disguised as plain talk. The experience is not a whole lot different from reading \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eA Variable Sense of Things\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e, his latest book of poems. Sometimes wry, sometimes downright funny; sometimes elegiac, sad, or rueful, and always, always smart. They do not strain, these poems. They are wise. They mean exactly what they say, and more.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e- Robert Wrigley, author of \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eEarthly Meditations: New and Selected Poems\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e and \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe True Account of Myself As A Bird\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIntensely personal poems, studded with unexpected ironies like grace notes, which illuminate the depth below the surface.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e- Mary Clearman Blew, author of \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eThink of Horses\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Cirque Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50726003114258,"sku":"9781737510482","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_3775edc3-c28b-4cd1-a786-e4ce8c286acd.jpg?v=1734849971","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/a-variable-sense-of-things-9781737510482","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}