Renewal

“Renewal is poetry of rare gifts. It unfurls as hymn and closes as folklore, both personal and transcendent. Desir’s diamantine lines, marked with the sensual largesse of nature and the surreal, extend the poetry of a Saint Lucia belonging at once to no one and everyone, one ‘of shades and shadows’.”

— Canisa Lubrin, poet and winner of the Carol Shields Award for Fiction, 2025, For Code Noir

Much admired by Nobel laureate Derek Walcott, the poetry of the St Lucian poet Irvin Desir is published here for the first time. Often visionary, these poems contain such images as “fireflies heave for heaven” and “you filled this cluttered room like a handful of clove”. Published in only a few anthologies during his life, this posthumous collection at last brings to our attention a voice too long unknown.

Irvin Desir (1954-2024) Much admired by Nobel laureate Derek Walcott, the poetry of the St Lucian poet Irvin Desir is published here for the first time. Often visionary, these poems contain such images as “fireflies heave for heaven” and “you filled this cluttered room like a handful of clove”. Published in only a few anthologies during his life, this posthumous collection at last brings to our attention a voice too long unknown.