Push

In this sophisticated debut collection, Ronald F. Smits deftly weaves the comic with the tragic as he vividly recreates days past in rural Pennsylvania. With a boyish charm, the eighty poems in "Push" lyrically recall baseball games, campouts under the stars, and dusty treks along lonely back roads - bringing to life a vision of mid-century America that is by turns nostalgic and clear-eyed, humorous and heartfelt. A masterly evocation of a place and a time that feel quintessentially American, "Push" opens our eyes to the twinned power of literature and memory.