The quietly triumphant poems in Lorraine Vail's Paradise Found take the reader from island to island, Eden to Eden, disclosing the paradises both within us and without us, both immediate and distant. These sharp, finely-wrought, and accessible lyrics are performed by a poet in full command of her considerable talents. Guiding us to these necessary boundaries, between our interior selves and the world outside of us, between land and water, between wife and husband, between mother and daughter, Vail shows us the gifts that are available to us all-if only we pay attention, if only we praise the everyday and the ordinary before us.

"The marvel of this book is that Vail does not ignore in her meditations the relief against which they rest: war and poverty are all too close. Thus, Vail's poetry affirms this absolute necessity of making ourselves open to the world: if we have any hope of finding paradise, she wisely reminds us, we must learn to find ourselves first."


James Brock
author of Pictures That Got Small
"Lorraine Vail is one of the most elegant and eloquent poets writing today. With compassion and shrewd, insightful observations, she unwraps each of our everyday worlds. As if that wasn't enough, she is also a metric master, turning out villanelles and sestinas at will."

Sidney B. Simon, Professor Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Author of Values Clarification, Getting Unstuck and Negative Criticism