Collected Poems

Lois Pereiro (1958-96) was born and spent his childhood in Monforte de Lemos, an important railway hub in the east of Galicia. At the age of 17, he went to Madrid to study sociology and modern languages (English, French, German), where he was involved in editing the magazine Loia (Skylark). It was here, in 1981, that he suffered from toxic oil syndrome, traced to adulterated rapeseed oil. This had a very debilitating effect on Pereiro, who later moved to Coruña (where he helped edit another magazine, La Naval) and travelled through central and western Europe. An addiction to heroin led to the author contracting AIDS, which was the cause of his untimely death, aged only 38. Pereiro published two poetry collections in his lifetime: Poems 1981/1991 and Last Poetry of Love and Illness 1992-1995. A posthumous collection of early poems, Poems for a Skylark, appeared one year after his death. All three books are included in this volume, first published in 2011 and now reprinted.