American Faith
The ultimate subject of Maya Catherine's stunning debut collection is violence. American Faith begins with its manifestation in our country: a destructive administration, a history of cruelty and extermination, and a love of firearms. "He owns a gun farm in Florida/they grow in swamps like chestnuts." The poet introduces a suite of poems that precisely imagines the consequences, a series of "cancellations"--of government, bees, the color wheel, the return to nature, and the end of the world. The violence naturally extends to the personal. The speaker's Romanian grandfather keeps wild dogs in case a man tries to steal his daughters. A godmother is psychologically erased by her tempestuous husband, who is nevertheless generous to flowers. "It's what happened inside her/that slouched." And what for some is routine can feel like an assault: a TSA agent wipes down a bra tucked in a traveler's suitcase, adding, "prettiest terrorist I've seen all day." Tentatively, the title poem casts light on the unexplored future, a solution that includes faith: "...the days, impatient, fresh beasts, appeal to me--You are here. You must believe in something."
Maya C. Popa is a Romanian-American poet and the author of two chapbooks, The Bees Have Been Canceled, named a Poetry Book Society choice in 2017, and You Always Wished the Animals Would Leave, published in 2018 (DIAGRAM chapbook series). She is the recipient of awards from the Poetry Foundation and the Hippocrates Society, and her writing has appeared in Poetry, Kenyon Review, Poetry London, and Tin House, among other publications. She holds degrees from Oxford University, New York University, and Barnard College. She directs the Creative Writing Program and teaches English literature at the Nightingale-Bamford School in New York City.
