MOM'S CANOE

This collection of 24 bittersweet poems is a visceral tribute to the Allegheny Mountain region.

Foust has been nominated for two Pushcart Awards, and it’s not hard to see why. Stunning from the start, these poems are delivered like a precise punch, as if the author painstakingly whittled down her stories until all extraneous words and imagery were on the cutting-room floor. Only the essence of blue-collar Allegheny County remains. Through vivid musical paeans, Foust treats readers to the land’s breathtaking beauty and stripped devastation–from miners whose "feet beat a work boot tattoo; laid off, / laid off, laid off" (from "Allegheny Mountain Bowl") to the haunting lines "Everyone’s going / or gone. Sunset bleeds / through bare boughs; / snow hollows go blue,” in "Allegheny County Winter Day," The book’s title sounds pleasant until readers reach the heartbreaking "Backwoods," in which the poet writes, "your beloved canoe still lies on its side / split like your lip / where he kicked it, / the night you ran home to us / in your nightgown and only one shoe." The titular poem similarly reflects painful memories. Cleverly, the author positions the poem "Raystown River Trout"–describing a fish that "took [her] hook like kite-caught wind"–opposite "How the Fish Feels," establishing a conversation between predator and prey. The natural world is a prominent force here, as in "Crickets at Lakemont Park," which drifts dazzlingly from crickets "sounding a catastrophe" outside a window to a memory of a "paint-peeling rolly coaster" that "creaked / its way up and plunged past the carousel." It’s another example of Foust’s seemingly effortless ability to transport readers.

A brief collection that packs more power than many full-length novels.