Step Lightly

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

In Willard's gracefully written introduction to this sparkling collection, she says the book "started in a shoe box," and what a brilliantly quirky and satisfying assortment she has compiled. Each poem that she clipped and saved has given her "the special kind of pleasure that good poetry gives when it celebrates the ordinary in an unordinary way." Willard deftly mixes Shakespeare's lyrical "Full Fathom Five" with Frost's eerie "The Witch of Coos" and Mother Goose's plainspoken "Go to Bed" into a seamless whole. She uses two Dickinson poems as bookends for the anthology, beginning with "Will There Really Be a Morning?" and ending with the poet's description of sunset in "Who Is the East?" The intervening poems dally over the animals, experiences, people, nature and ideas that have intrigued poets for centuries, as if the events described were occurring during the course of an ordinary, yet extraordinary, day. Lesser known poets flank the venerable Stafford, Blake, Yeats and Roethke, while Neruda's homely "Ode to a Pair of Socks" keeps company with Pastan's exquisite "Blizzard." Unlike many collections for young adults, Willard avoids poems about teenage angst and confusion, inviting readers to begin the journey into mature feeling and thought. Teachers, especially, will find this volume a treasure, and fledgling wordsmiths will feel a thrill akin to browsing through the notebooks of a poet. Ages 12-up. (Sept.)

VOYA - Beth Karpas

Willard gathered these poems and stored them in a shoebox over a number of years. She then arranged the diverse collection to guide the reader through a day, beginning with Emily Dickinson's "Will There Really Be a 'Morning'?" and finishing with verses on nighttime writings, dreams, and disillusionment. While it is questionable how many libraries need yet another copy of Blake's "The Tyger," what other volume would place it within two pages of a poem on catfish from a 1970 issue of Tropical Fish Hobbyist magazine? Versions of works by cummings, Shakespeare, and Mother Goose abound in other collections, but rarely are they bound together with both poems by Chilean diplomats and U.S. filmmakers.

The one problem with the layout is that the author notes are gathered at the very back of the book; with such a wide array of poets and poems, this reader would have appreciated having the biographies with their respective poems. This is a personal preference however, and of little consequence with such a thin book. Step Lightly is highly recommended for all libraries, whether your young adults read poems for pleasure or for school requirements. Biblio. Notes.

VOYA Codes: 4Q 4P M J S (Better than most, marred only by occasional lapses, Broad general YA appeal, Middle School-defined as grades 6 to 8, Junior High-defined as grades 7 to 9 and Senior High-defined as grades 10 to 12).

Children's Literature

The introduction describes the unusual genesis of this book. The author clipped and copied poems from newspapers, books and magazines for years and saved them in a shoebox. They are poems that moved her by the use of language, rhythm or theme. The subjects vary as do the forms of poetry. Celebrated poets such as Theodore Roethke, William Carlos Williams, Robert Frost, and Emily Dickinson are represented along with others who are not so well known. The most unusual poem is "Cover Catfish" by Liz Fischer and it is made up of words found in Tropical Fish Hobbyist Magazine. The opening and closing poems, "Will There Really be a 'Morning'?" and "Who is the East?" are by Emily Dickinson. "The Tyger" by William Blake is included, as are "Sestina" by Elizabeth Bishop and "Miss Rosie" by Lucille Clifton. The range is wide and interesting to the reader and lover of poetry who may wish to carry this volume along on her own journey.

School Library Journal

Gr 7 Up-Willard says this book began in a shoe box-a gathering of memorable poems that have given her pleasure over the years. Some are familiar, such as William Blake's "The Tyger"; others may be new to teen readers even if the poets (Dickinson, Frost, Shakespeare, and cummings) are not. Each poem considers common things encountered on the long journey of life, of writing, of the quest for knowledge. Valerie Linet provides aspiring writers with a recipe for "Poetry Loaves" ("Knead the mixture until it tumbles into birth./...Do not follow the recipe too closely;/ shut your eyes and burn the rules."). Christopher Smart reflects on his cat Jeoffry and what he brings to his life. Gerald Stern worships cows. D. H. Lawrence, in two brilliantly concise sentences, finds joy in "The White Horse." It is from these greats of poetry that Willard weaves an anthology in which readers can find happiness, insight, inspiration, and wisdom. Pablo Neruda finds joy in the little things in his "Ode to a Pair of Socks." William Butler Yeats's "The Song of Wandering Aengus," one of the most beautifully lyrical and tender pieces in the collection, offers readers much to savor. The poets are legendary; their words are applicable even to today's jaded teens. There is joy here-if only readers will allow it to sing within them.-Sharon Korbeck, Waupaca Area Public Library, WI

Kirkus Reviews

According to the introduction, this gathering of poetry from Europe and the Americas began as clippings in a shoebox, collected over years by Willard (Magic Cornfield, 1997, etc). The selections are meaty, with D.H. Lawrence's three-line "The White Horse" and Robert Frost's deliciously eerie, six-page dialogue, "The Witch of Co"s," at the extremes for length, and make an eclectic mix, leaning toward newer poets but including a Mother Goose rhyme, Christopher Smart's "For I Will Consider My Cat Jeoffry," and "Donal Og," a traditional lament for love betrayed. The arrangement is, broadly, by subject, beginning with Emily Dickinson's "Will There Really Be a `Morning'?" and closing with poems featuring night, death, and dreams. Selections in between touch on wind and water, sensory epiphanies (Pablo Neruda sings an "Ode to a Pair of Socks" while Theodore Roethke's "Slug" is about stepping on one), animals, children, old folk, and even bodies, as in Lucille Clifton's "Homage to My Hips." Few of the poems were written specifically for an audience of the young, but those who aren't thrown by e.e. cummings's "If there are any heavens my mother will (all by herself) have" should comprehend the syntax and content of the rest. It's a highly personal collection, chosen with a fine ear for language and rightfully commended by Willard for "celebrating the ordinary in an unordinary way." (Poetry. 8-12)