Robert Boates

{{short description|Canadian poet}}

{{BLP primary sources|date=July 2014}}

Robert Boates (born 1954 in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada) is a Canadian poet.{{cite web|title=Robert Boates|url=http://www.lovethepoem.com/poets/robert-boates/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110713234516/http://www.lovethepoem.com/poets/robert-boates/|url-status=usurped|archive-date=July 13, 2011|work=lovethepoem.com|accessdate=15 October 2010}} In 1989 he suffered a head injury which caused brain trauma, damaging the language center of his brain. His poetry, which is clear, erudite, well-crafted, intelligent, and economical, "provides a literary voice for survivors of brain trauma, documenting his passage in a second life." In 2006 he published He Carries Fear with Cactus Tree Press. His style, in its contemporariness-without-ornament, can be reminiscent of Larry Levis.