Swimming Lessons
Selected Poems
Published on 22. April 2014
221 pages
978-1-4804-8153-4 (ISBN)
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.
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.
More details
Person
Nancy Willard (1936-2017) grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She was the author of two novels, seven books of stories and essays, and twelve books of poetry, including
The Sea at Truro (2012). A winner of the Devins Memorial Award, she received NEA grants in both fiction and poetry. Her book
Water Walker was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and her picture book
A Visit to William Blake's Inn was the first volume of poetry to receive the Newbery Medal, the country's highest honor for children's writing.
Content
- Intro
- Cover
- Title Page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Publisher's Note
- Epigraph
- NEW POEMS
- Swimming Lessons
- Cold Water
- At the Optometrist's
- Grief and the Dentist
- A Member of the Wedding
- Memory Hat
- The Patience of Bathtubs
- Guesthouse, Union City, Michigan
- Flea Market
- Uninvited Houses
- Fairy Tale
- Swimming to China
- The Exodus of Peaches
- In Praise of the Puffball
- The Alligator Wrestler
- The Fruit Bat
- Peacock Bride
- The Wisdom of the Geese
- The Wisdom of the Jellyfish
- Sand Shark
- Winston Farm
- The Burning at Neilson's Farm
- A Very Still Life
- Still Life with Drive-in
- The Bell Ringers of Kalamazoo
- A Conversation Phrase Book for Angels
- From a Postcard (found poem)
- from IN HIS COUNTRY (1966)
- The Flea Circus at Tivoli
- Picture Puzzles
- Marcel Marceau
- Wedding Song
- Bees Swarming
- Saint Nicholas Is the Patron Saint of
- Ashes
- from The Cycle of the Fountain (Oslo: Frogner Park)
- II. "Kvinne og Enhjørning" (Woman and Unicorn)
- III. "Gutt Kjemper Med Ørn" (Boy Fighting Eagle)
- V. "Fontenen" (The Fountain)
- Camera Obscura
- First Lesson
- from SKIN OF GRACE (1967)
- The Church
- String Games
- The Insects
- Transcript, 1848
- Guest
- The Healers
- Skin of Grace
- from A NEW HERBALL (1968)
- Moss
- Arbor
- Out of War
- from 19 MASKS FOR THE NAKED POET (1971)
- The Poet Takes a Photograph of His Heart
- The Poet Invites the Moon for Supper
- The Poet Writes Many Letters
- The Poet Enters the Sleep of the Bees
- The Poet Turns His Enemy into a Pair of Wings
- The Poet Tracks Down the Moon
- The Baker's Wife Tells His Horoscope with Pretzels
- The Poet Stumbles upon the Astronomer's Orchards
- The Poet's Wife Watches Him Enter the Eye of the Snow
- from CARPENTER OF THE SUN (1974)
- For You, Who Didn't Know
- A Kind of Healing
- Carpenter of the Sun
- In Praise of ABC
- A Humane Society
- Walking Poem
- Marriage Amulet
- How to Stuff a Pepper
- Roots
- A Psalm for Running Water
- In Praise of Unwashed Feet
- The Animals Welcome Persephone
- When There Were Trees
- What the Grass Said
- Clearing the Air
- from HOUSEHOLD TALES OF MOON AND WATER (1982)
- Questions My Son Asked Me, Answers I Never Gave Him
- Night Light
- Angels in Winter
- Two Roman Goddesses
- First goddess: Deverra
- Second goddess: Juno Lucina
- Lightness Remembered
- How the Hen Sold Her Eggs to the Stingy Priest
- Saint Pumpkin
- The Sleep of the Painted Ladies
- The Five Versions of the Icicle
- Family Picnic with Wine and Water
- Two Allegorical Figures
- Country Scene
- My Life on the Road with Bread and Water
- In Which I Meet Bread and Catch Water
- In Which Water Gathers the Full Moon
- In Which Water Gives Me the Book of My Ancestors
- In Which Water Turns Himself into a Feast
- In Which I Leave Water and Find Road
- Blessing for Letting Go
- from THE BALLAD OF BIDDY EARLY (1987)
- The Ballad of Biddy Early
- How the Magic Bottle Gave Biddy Its Blessing
- Charm of the Gold Road, the Silver Road, and the Hidden Road
- How the Queen of the Gypsies Met Trouble-and-Pain
- How Biddy Called Back Friday, Her Lost Pig
- Biddy Early Makes a Long Story Short
- Song from the Far Side of Sleep
- from WATER WALKER (1989)
- A Wreath to the Fish
- The Feast of St. Tortoise
- Psalm to the Newt
- Airport Lobsters
- Life at Sea: The Naming of Fish
- Poem Made of Water
- A Hardware Store as Proof of the Existence of God
- Missionaries Among the Heathen
- Memorial Day in Union City, Michigan
- Science Fiction
- Coming to the Depot
- The Teachings of the Jade
- A Psalm for Vineyards
- Onionlight
- The Potato Picker
- The Weeder
- God Enters the Swept Field
- Small Medicinal Poem
- For Karen
- Little Elegy with Books and Beasts
- Poems from the Sports Page
- Buffalo Climbs out of Cellar
- Saints Lose Back
- Field Collapses Behind Patullo
- Tigers Shake Up Pitchers Again
- Wayward Lass Wins Mother Goose
- Stars Nip Wings
- Divine Child Rolls On
- from A NANCY WILLARD READER (1991)
- One for the Road
- from AMONG ANGELS (1995)
- The Winged Ones
- Photographing the Angels
- Angels Among the Servants
- Jacob Boehme and the Angel
- Visitation in a Pewter Dish
- Acknowledgments and Permissions
- About the Author
- Copyright
