Terrain Vague

Author: Richard Meier

Publisher: Wave Books (2004)

In his debut volume, Richard Meier risks "an affront to the personal" by dismantling and reassembling the lyric "I." His poems demonstrate a dizzying grace while uncovering a terrain less vague than tremendously powerful. The emotional tenor of Meier’s poems work with the strong intellect behind them to produce a captivating collection. 

"Richard Meier’s Terrain Vague chooses a remarkably different path. Among a plethora of nearly indistinguishable voices, his rings out like that of a man waving semaphores: hills and valleys burning, fire approaching from above and around and below. It is a startling first book, a work of craft and originality and heart. Without flamboyant language it makes its presence known, refuses to engage in idle conversation and creates, by doing so, a different tone in the room . . . this is one of the best first books I have seen in recent years."

–Pamela Greenberg

Winner of the 2000 Verse Prize, selected by Tomaž Šalamun