Swimming Lessons
Selected Poems
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
This marvelous collection brings together the finest of Nancy Willard’s work
Transporting us from Michigan farm country to the streets of New York, from a family picnic by a stream to snow-covered fields peopled by angels, the poems gathered here represent the best of Nancy Willard.
Willard’s gift for peeling back everyday existence to reveal something magical and wondrous is everywhere in evidence here. Ordinary trees become surreal landscapes “fanning the fire in their stars” and “spraying fountains of light.” Poems featuring Great Danes, donkeys, and rabbits reveal Willard’s love for all living creatures. “How to Stuff a Pepper” and “A Psalm for Running Water” coexist with poems about visits from God. The title poem tells the story of Willard at seven, while “Questions My Son Asked Me, Answers I Never Gave Him” explores the joys and pitfalls of being a mother.
Offering imagery from mythical goddesses to pumpkin saints to wise jellyfish, these are poems of astonishing imagination and grace, and will introduce a new generation of readers to Willard’s remarkable body of work.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Drawing from 10 previous collections (excepting A Visit to William Blake's Inn) and adding 30 new poems, Willard focuses closely on the things of the world around her. While mundane interests often yield mundane poems ("The Patience of Bathtubs" extols the characteristics of tubs, or "Grief and the Dentist," describes a pulled tooth), poems that move outward (the title poem and "Clearing the Air" are both about events in Willard's youth that have a lasting significance) combine close observation with a wider focus. In praising everyday objects, she adopts a one-note wonderment that can pall. But there are flashes of wit (in "Roots," the vegetable man recommends his parsnips: "I know the family"). Willard is adept at retelling myths and fairy tales; the "Biddy" poems evince both rhythmic and narrative energy. This collection (following Among Angels, co-authored with Jane Yolen) demonstrates Willard's trademark observant eye and often fey sensibility but offers few surprises.
