Aphrodite

New Orleans is a woman who wears her wounds in front like the finest brooch. In his first book, poet Ted Carter meets New Orleans’ unapologetic stare with his own, and offers us an intimate look at what falls between gazes. These poems neither seek permission nor forgiveness; they are what they are, as much of New Orleans simply is what it is in these years after Hurricane Katrina. Taking on subjects from edge/fringe culture to sexuality to murder to redemption, Carter reshapes his own New Orleans as the Goddess of Love, and shares with us all that she is in her purest form: stripped naked, barefaced, and in the harsh light of day, a tragic beauty.