{"product_id":"small-comforts-9781639806799","title":"Small Comforts","description":"LaDeana Mullinix is a native Kansan, now living in northwest Arkansas. She is a graduate of the University of Kansas and Texas Woman's University. She is a Quaker, a retired occupational therapist, a Master Gardener, and a Master Naturalist. She has written poetry since junior high, but has only recently begun publishing her work.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEach poem in LaDeana Mullinix's \u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003eSmall Comforts\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e holds a story and a surprise. Like a magician, she leads you in one direction, then presto!-you land somewhere else. But there's so much more to her than playfulness. She's an original, a pure voice that speaks to us gently, her humor softening the edges of grief she knows well from her work as an occupational therapist and a friend to the elderly. She waves her wand of words over prairies, neighbors, horses, ducks, social causes . . . and scapula. Is she speaking about her own poetry in \"Sailing the Great Plains\" when she describes a team of Clydesdales \"whose feathery fetlocks tricked many \/ to think their light steps were not powerful\"? Read \u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003eSmall Comforts\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e and decide for yourself. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e-\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003eSuzanne Underwood Rhodes\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e, Arkansas Poet Laureate and author of \u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Perfume of Pain\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLaDeana Mullinix's Quaker sensibilities were tempered by an upbringing on the Kansas prairie. Together, those two influences further shaped her sensibilities as a poet. Through her eyes, we see a world of challenge that she faces with uncompromising openness and clarity. It is a world of ice storms and lightning strikes, of loss and the incipient chill of autumn. But it is also a world of simple comforts that see us through it all: jonquils planted on the fresh grave of a pet dog, \"fresh cinnamon rolls warmed,\" and a \"white cotton sweater-light, but just enough.\" In this new collection, Mullinix offers us more than the simple comfort of lucid, well-written poems; she serves us lightning strikes of love to \"lighten the weight of sadness if we can\" and \"allow joy to alight on a heavy world.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e-\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003eMichael Blanchard\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e, author of \u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Pearl Diver's Daughter \u0026amp; Other Poems\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e and editor of \u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003eSLANT: A Journal of Contemporary Poetry\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Kelsay Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52160368574738,"sku":"9781639806799","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_58be7a16-135c-41ca-93b4-59324d72937d.jpg?v=1775056025","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/small-comforts-9781639806799","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}