From the Country of Nevermore: Selected Poems

Chilean Teillier is a poet of the countryside, a profound observer of the relationship between man and nature and of the subtle shifts of light, sound and smell that result from this interaction. The poet transforms his perceptions of these sensory ephemera into poetry that is moody and contemplative, where ``a dark return of birds / before the glance of a girl / who waits motionless on the threshold'' reminds us of the dead, and where ``the rain is the sterile echo of the end'' of the world, ``a song that a mouth decomposing in the earth is trying to remember.'' Teillier's voice is slow moving and hushed, each moment savored as a quiet epiphany. Yet for all of this atmospheric sensuality, there is a curious lack of emotional depth to several of these poems. In works like ``Country Road'' and ``When Everyone Leaves,'' dealing with the loneliness and isolation of a life without love, his words are disappointingly hollow and the poems as a whole are strangely inert. Overall, however, his vision is movingly palpable within these pages, Crow having done an admirable job conveying the tang and rhythm of this knowing writer. This is a bilingual edition. (Nov.)