Step Lightly: Poems for the Journey

by Nancy Willard (compiler)

The poems in this collection come from Nancy Willard's cardboard boxes--she's collected them to accompany her on her journey through life, and she hopes young people will take them along on their own adventures. Works by well-known poets--Elizabeth Bishop, e. e. cummings, Emily Dickinson, and Wallace Stevens--are gathered here, along with verse from lesser known writers from other countries and other times.
All of the poems in Step Lightly share a common readability, and the spark of joy that caught a remarkable poet's eye.

Genres: Poetry, Young Adult

112 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1998

About the author

NANCY WILLARD was an award-winning children's author, poet, and essayist who received the Newbery Medal in 1982 for A Visit to William Blake's Inn. She wrote dozens of volumes of children's fiction and poetry, including The Flying Bed, Sweep Dreams, and Cinderella's Dress. She also authored two novels for adults, Things Invisible to See and Sister Water, and twelve books of poetry, including Swimming Lessons: New and Selected Poems. She lived with her husband, photographer Eric Lindbloom, and taught at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York.

Reviews

[Lacy Phillips · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very nice book although some of the poems in this book were quite hard to understand, I still enjoyed this book a lot and the poems in this book are quite inspirational as well. I would like to read some more poetry and be even more inspired too. Overall I really liked this book and I definitely recommend this book for anyone who is into poetry and even if your not into poetry it could still inspire you and it could actually get you to actually like poetry even if you despise it.

[Lacy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very nice book although some of the poems in this book were quite hard to understand, I still enjoyed this book a lot and the poems in this book are quite inspirational as well. I would like to read some more poetry and be even more inspired too. Overall I really liked this book and I definitely recommend this book for anyone who is into poetry and even if your not into poetry it could still inspire you and it could actually get you to actually like poetry even if you despise it.

[Melissa]

Favorites:
Emily Hahn, Wind Blowing
Kelly Williams, the Bluest Tattoo
Lucille Clifton, Miss Rosie
Alexis Rotella, Purple

[Jim Erekson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I never got a fair introduction to poetry when I was in school. But I learned this is because you have to run into exactly the right poem at almost exactly the right time, which means the only way to get poems right in school is to be constantly setting some out.

When someone whose poems you love shows you the ones she's collected for herself over the years, it's like she showed you a shortcut, a sweet spot, a sunny patch. Her stash.

[Koeeoaddi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice collection, but I was hoping for more poems that I hadn't read before.