Fire in the Grass

<p>LORRAINE VAIL'S book of poems Fire in The Grass is a page turner. Her centos are luminous including Cento on Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry 2006 in one of her standout sections The State of Poetry. Heartbreak embraces heart-wrenching poems such as Last Afternoon at the House September 11 Six Years Later and the moving lines of Grandmother: I have traveled more than half-way past my life/ and realize now I was the/ granddaughter you never had.</p><br></br><p>JUANITA TORRENCE-THOMPSONEditor-in-Chief/Publisher MOBIUS THE POETRY MAGAZINEAuthor of New York and African Tapestries & Breath-Life</p><br></br><p>Lorraine Vail is a poet's poet in her very important book Fire in the Grass. Not only has she mastered the form of the centos she has enlivened it with a bold approach: the book itself is a tribute to other voices other visions. It is the very thing that we hope poetry can do and be.</p><br></br><p>But the marvel of Fire in the Grass isn't in the pyrotechnics of craft but in the burning clarity of Vail's accessible language. Here are poems of longing memory of the most common of experiences. Lorraine Vail invites us to sit with her and listen. Yes we hear the echo of the poets but we also hear something quite familiar perhaps something close to our own hearts our own burning.</p><br></br>James Brock <br><p>Author of four books of poetry including the forthcoming Gods & Money Professor of Creative Writing and Literature at Florida Gulf Coast University.</p><br></br><p>Good poetry begins with observation and Lorraine Vail is a keen observer. She watches the beaches the fields the woodlands where she finds clues to life's riddles which she shares with the reader in this smart collection of wonderfully accessible and finely crafted poems.</p><p>Peter C. Leverich Editor Avocet A Journal of Nature Poems</p><br></br><p>These poems clearly show what a first class poet Vail is. You will find grace beauty skill and wit in this collection. Go search these poems look for what you need for what she's written is so brilliant it will probably find you first.</p><br></br>Sidney B. Simon Professor Emeritus University of Massachusetts