Amaranth: 3 (Indolent Books Spring 2016)

In one of the most important of the Aztec festivals a month of fasting was ended by observers of the fast cutting up the figurine of a god made of amaranth seeds and honey and sharing it in small pieces. In Amaranth Robert Carr feeds his readers portions of a god fashioned out of terror longing infidelity wasting sickness humor and a searing lyrical tenderness. Crafted with the fingers of a careful and nimble musicianship these poems vibrate with a current that simultaneously sets the teeth on edge and soothes the agitation the words produce. Even the most casual reader will be astonished by the muscular audacity of these poems--and pleasured by the harsh honey that flows from the poets deft pillaging of the hearts unease. This is a remarkable debut.--Tom DaleyThe poetic drama in Amaranth arises from Robert Carrs intuition that a healthy enabling relation to ones past depends on an unflinching re-encounter with the details of the past. The poems choose not to settle for comfortable lessons--instead they swim down bravely into haunted caverns of memory seeking affirmations inseparable from the facts of moments as in Cremation where the difference between two kinds of powder does it all.--Mark HallidaySlow deliberate and finely wrought the poems in Amaranth remind the mouth that it has a tongue remind the ear that it has a heart. Robert Carrs expressive voice is spare honest precise and inventive as his poems careen from the furnace of love to the brutality of death all while offering the reader a gorgeous lyrical accuracy thats both delicate and unforgiving. --Ada LimonRobert Carr was born in Annapolis Maryland and grew up in New Hampshire. He holds a BA in Philosophy from Bates College in Lewiston Maine and a MEd in counseling psychology from the University of Massachusetts. He is Deputy Director Bureau of Infectious Disease and Laboratory Sciences at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Amaranth is his first collection.