This presentation is a reflection on my encounters with Latter-day Saint sexual mores through Mormon theology’s expansive view of embodiment, procreation, and desire. I weigh these encounters against my readerly desires, my family relationships, and my experience with specific poems by American poets Lucille Clifton, Sharon Olds, Walt Whitman, Allen Ginsberg, and Javen Tanner. The result is a mosaic showing how these influences have shaped my understanding of Mormonism, eroticism, and literature.

Tyler Chadwick