Awaiting Place

"Awaiting Place" is the epitome of a contemporary literary museum. It tenderly preserves pieces that have been inspired by a myriad of loved ones gone and still present and by the collective yet somewhat unique human experience that mockingly and precariously questions our existence. This quintessential St. Lucian collection by Alvinus Melius has been forged by the poet's own grief, disillusion, love, desire, sensuality, identity and endemic patrimony over nearly two decades. Melius has skillfully used free verse to pay stylistic and thematic homage to greats such as local poet Kendel Hippolyte and internationally renowned ones like Elizabeth Jennings and WH Auden who have served as his literary muses since childhood. This fluid Collection playfully and masterfully juxtaposes metaphors and similes amidst a canopy of natural imagery, which the poet uses to bring life to even the deceased among his subjects. This paradoxical backdrop complements a wealth of nostalgic tones that scale along every human emotion. Readers therefore are coerced into wondering themselves, whether or not we are all silently "Awaiting Place".