{"product_id":"the-things-of-this-world-paperback","title":"The Things of This World - Paperback","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eMichael Blanchard\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePoems of celebration and meditation on the power and fragility of the world that allows for beauty, love, and sorrow.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eReading Michael Blanchard's \u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Things of This World, \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eI was reminded again and yet again of Walt Whitman's famous line, \"Who touches this touches a man.\" Blanchard's poems bring us into the presence of a genuinely humane person, a poet who speaks with the modesty of deep experience and well-honed craft. This poet practices what might be called a \u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003espiritual\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e poetry, a poetry that opens our eyes and hearts to profound mysteries of being. His explorations of the transformational moments of perception and memory remind me at times of the Chinese masters and at others of the Christian mystics - but always the poems resonate with his own unique and carefully-modulated voice. As Blanchard himself writes in the title poem: \"The true reckoning \/ of this world \/ is the way we come \/ to know things twice: \/ in the wonder first \/ and then the remembering.\" \u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Things of This World\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eis a wonder-filled and memorable collection.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e-\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003eMichael Hettich\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e, Author, \u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003eA Sharper Silence\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Halo of Bees\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn his most powerful collection to date, Michael David Blanchard gracefully blends the philosophical, the reflective, and the personal, all with a scholar's eye for the telling detail and a poet's ear for the music in language. With his precise\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003econtrol over form, he creates free verse rich in sensory imagery, discovery, and intellectual depth - haunting, immersive, and exacting. Rooted in Southern sensibilities, these poems frequently meditate on memory and aging but also reach further to conjure landscapes both physical and emotional, from the \"Big Muddy\" to \"the house that no longer stands.\" Through the alchemy of words and empathy, Blanchard calls us to a reckoning, even as he invites us into poems sustained by the tension between loss and love, thought and feeling, the here and the gone. At the heart of these evocative pieces lies his quiet truth, captured in a line from the opening poem: \"everything else we lose \/ but love anyway.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e-\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003eClaire Hamner Matturro\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e, Associate Editor, \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003eSouthern Literary Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 96\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.23 x 9 x 6 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e February 21, 2026\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48290471543033,"sku":"9798901468074","price":27.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0789\/2782\/3097\/files\/D8XLlOgupS9798901468074.webp?v=1776283800","url":"https:\/\/bookscloud.io\/products\/the-things-of-this-world-paperback","provider":"BooksCloud Book Dropshipping","version":"1.0","type":"link"}