The Ghost of Eden

``Someone at the party said it was impossible/ to imagine the death of the species/ ...but I could imagine it.'' In this impressive fourth collection, Twichell investigates human destruction of the natural world. She conveys the enormity of the subject with unflinching intelligence, all the while rejecting sentimentality, blame and solutions: ``It's beautiful anyway,/ the lacerated wilderness...'' Taking an observer's stance, she courts a chilly distance, but the poems generate the requisite heat with the poet's precise, original and frequently brilliant use of language: ``I'm an animal/ shivering in the Godlike glitter,/ the burial of earth by light/ and then by light's extinction'' (``Little Snowscape''). Lyric moments enrich the work: ``The earth as it has always been/ is saying its goodbyes. Another world/ will overrun the emptiness,/ but I love this one.'' This ambitious, compelling collection estabishes Twichell as a major voice in contemporary poetry. (Oct.)