Dead Wendy
Richard Carr has written a wonderfully inventive, elegiac, haunting sequencethat emerges directly from the intersection of Berryman and Petrarch. Dead Wendy--the book's Laura--maintains her central place as a constantly shifting, shimmering object of attention while drinks are drunk, wars occur, and the past--composed primarily of love and loss--gets carried inexorably forward through time. A key pleasure of these poems is their wry, self-deprecating humor--presented with a dry, subtle bravado--but the overall effect ofDead Wendyis heartbreaking, and the presentation is agile and masterful.  --Wayne Miller, author ofThe City, Our CityThese are nightmarish and beautiful poems, full of music, horror, and wisdom.  Wendy will haunt you.  This is a new kind of poetry, written by an important new poet.  --Laura Kasischke, author ofSpace, in Chains