Poets’ Corner: Our Poet Laureate Brings the Heat for Valentine’s Day

13 Feb Poets’ Corner: Our Poet Laureate Brings the Heat for Valentine’s Day

It was standing room only last December at the Telluride Institute’s Talking Gourds Poetry bash and San Miguel Poet Laureate Elissa Dickson did not disappoint her crowd. For the end-of-the-year celebration, she delivered fireworks in the form of her unfiltered words, bringing the house down – and the heat up. It’s more of the same for Valentine’s Day. And why not? Some – no, many – like it hot.  

The Phoenix

Imagine the possibilities

I whisper

The sun rises for a reason

Take its invitation and hold it tight to your heart.

I like my body when

Your eyes are on it

Seeing me, seeing you

Come Alive with my

Touch

And you touching me, touching we

Slip into one another

Slip into a space lined thick with golden phoenix feathers

Framing your eyes like a sunrise

New to me, new to we

Each moment.

(For the record, Elissa is also adult program director at Telluride’s Wilkinson Public Library, with five stars for the ninth year in a row, easily the raddest in the state.)