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W&L Alum's First Book of Poetry Published

No Loneliness, the first book of poetry by Washington and Lee alumnus Temple Cone of the Class of 1995, has just been published by FutureCycle Press, which awarded Temple its first annual FutureCycle Poetry Book Prize. Although this is his first book of poetry, Temple is the author of five chapbooks of poetry and has also published two critical reference books. He’s an assistant professor of English at the U.S. Naval Academy. After receiving his B.A. in philosophy from W&L, Temple went on to earn the Ph.D. in English from the University of Wisconsin, an MA in creative writing from Hollins, and an MFA in creative writing from U.Va. He has won several awards for his poetry, some of which is linked from his Web site. Here is one of the poems from No Loneliness:

In Passing

Every hour’s its own season, I wrote once,
Wishing, of course, that the best hours could last
Long as bayside summers or those Christmas
Holidays we remember from years past.

But the proof of happiness is that it’s brief.
We mix cakes with salt, listen to sad songs,
Squeeze a bit of lemon into our tea,
For no tongue can savor sweetness too long.

Yet some mornings, once May gives way to heat,
We notice hints of gold along the leaves,
Or sense, when winter’s hold seems complete,
Blossoms lodged in icicles under eaves.

So yes, parting’s hell, but it’s also heaven,
And makes farewell a prayer we believe in.

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