A poem by Roy Scheele, associate professor of English and Doane's poet-in-residence, has won an international poetry competition. Scheele's sonnet "Hope Light" received the John Joseph Memorial Award in the 2007 World Order of Narrative and Formalist Poets international poetry competition
Hope Light
That sweep and plash of light that parts the dark
a moment and is gone, as the thick beam
completes the silent circuit of its arc,
cutting through mist around it as through steam-
continually returning, like an oar,
to the same leaning posture as the blade
digs at the water and makes droplets soar
and fall back to the surface and then fade-
much in the same way, hope swings into view,
now here, now gone, leaving a glittering wake,
an aftermath like fortune's residue,
giving this man the shaft, and that a break.
That light's a leveler, a dripping scythe
that makes even the seasoned sailor writhe.