A Telluride Smile

 A Telluride Smile

 

The familiar adrenaline

rush comes through my veins.

Only this time, I’m

Stepping off the stage

at The Sheridan Opera House

 in Telluride at a Writing Conference,

after reading The Lure of the Mountain King

to a theatre with a packed Audience.

 

I walk briskly from the dull lit theatre

into the bright Telluride

noon day sun.

 

It’s funny,

I have faced death

in the mountains,

at every turn of my

skis in a gnarly chute

in the Wasatch National

Forests of Utah.

 

Jumped into

Saudan’s Couloir,

Blackcomb, British Columbia,

catching an edge and fell

one thousand vertical feet

again destroying my bad right shoulder.

 

It was the most difficult thing,

I’ve ever done

stepping on that stage in Telluride

in front of

a sea of eager faces

and read my story.

 

I walk the main street

to a small park in town

my stomach churning

and watch the Hang Gliders

swoop down in controlled circles

at the box canyon wall

during the World Hang Gliding Championships

before performing a loop de loop

away from the wall

into a Death Spiral

to the landing field.