Temple
Cone loves the language, the shape and sound of our words. He uses them
tastefully and intelligently—words like ossuary,
Rappahannock, gambrel, bifurcated, equivalence—and tucks them carefully
into his lines. He’s not strutting when he does this, but demonstrating the
depth and breadth of our language. His poems are rich—consistently so—and deeply
felt. He challenges himself with interesting forms and poem shapes, and he is
equally skillful with designs or free forms, using them with “amazing grace.”
