“Timeless and sublime, Carmelo Militano’s, sumptuous yet airy collection of erotic poems spans from the garden of Eden to the time of Shunga, to Byzantium where peacocks walk on gravel to Southern Italy where Neruda roams sun-soaked streets in between glimpses of Li Po and Fanny Hill. It’s a collection to read to your lover in bed with wine, candles, and finishing with the “wild curves of starlings.”

“Militano’s Archeologia Eros blends a touch of Sappho, hints of Ovid, Shunga Art, several sprigs of Irving Layton, and a dash of private liturgy, all bound together with François Dubeau’s intricate ribbon line drawings. The ribbon, ultimately, leads readers out of the labyrinth of desire towards love. Militano’s poetic language is lyrical, characteristic of erotic poetry, and the eroticism is centered in the physical world.”

“Archeologia Eros is a universal and worldly wise and embrace of the erotic in both poetry and prose. A delicate flame-to paraphrase Sappho-runs between the reader’s eye and Militano’s richly inventive coital page.”

“Archeologia Eros is vibrantly alive with brilliant imagery languishing in the lap of desire. This offering from poet Carmelo Militano is a luxurious walk through the modern day curves of the age-old Garden of Eden. His amazing use of metaphor, personification, colours and description in the poem “Winter” are like indigo ink contrasts on white linen sheets; waves of passion crashing on ocean white pages of grey matter creations.: Excerpt: ‘Winter is a green cockatoo in a cage/A cold yawn above oranges, lemons in a wooden bowl’.

Militano’s masterful use of words is never so evident as in the poem “How do you grow love”:

Excerpt: ‘Love is brief/ Ache and rattle of a train in an argument with the night/ Between love and grief’. Throughout the book vivid images are splashed onto one’s mind in scattered regularity with a tender roughness that piques and juggles the emotions into an erotic slow dance and tango.

Other exceptional lines from “Rome’s Starlings” are: ‘Starlings in the shiny blue evening sky/ Expand and contract like a lung’ and ending the poem ‘between an empty road/ and a poet’s journey/ between lovers/ and the wild curves of questioning starlings.

This collection of poetry transcends time and brushes the wings of the divine with touches of eros and passion. It travels love and desire through the sweet mystery of youth into the languid enjoyment of maturity. The casually suggestive sketches of Quebec artist Francois Dubeau peppered throughout the book enhance the poems with a raw yet elegant simplicity. A must read for all passionate lovers and a terrific addition to every erotic collector’s library. ”