00:00:00:00 - 00:00:23:25
[Daryl] In 1991, I believe it was at the time I was Idaho writer in residence and I happened to run across an article in The Idaho Statesman describing the Trinity Mountain Lookout, which I guess is around Trinity Lakes between Ketchum and Mountain Home up in that area.
00:00:23:28 - 00:00:56:09
[Daryl] And it was a very vivid article. It described the lookout itself, and it described the experiences of John Thorton, who was the lookout there at the time. And it was really a spectacular description of what was going on. And it just inspired me to write a poem about it at the time, I was interested in writing a lot of poems about really trying to find order and meaning in the world.
00:00:56:11 - 00:01:29:15
[Daryl] And it seemed to me that what John Thornton was describing was an effort to do that or to find discover some kind of order, larger order. And so I ended up extracting actual quotations from the article of his descriptions and some of the images to illustrate what’s going on in the poem. It’s called Why the Fire Lookout Fears and Loves Lightning.
00:01:29:18 - 00:02:11:17
[Daryl] Everything stays put. Everything’s grounded with rods going down. But I’ve seen it circle the catwalk thin as dental floss arching for rail to rail. The tower hums and the windows turn into negatives. I’ve seen my reflection outlined in pink, my hair standing on end. All winter in the valley, I sort mail whatever slips between zip codes. The misaddressed, the rain smeared the sacks of illegible scrawl.
00:02:11:19 - 00:02:48:17
[Daryl] So many puzzles, so many missed connections. It’s enough to make you wonder. So each summer, like Moses, I come to the mountaintop. All day, every day I scan the peaks and ridgelines for the telltale blue white wisp of distant fire. When I spot one, I shoot an azimuth on the Osborn, then Radio Fire Dispatch. I’ve seen 15, 16 after a single storm.
00:02:48:20 - 00:03:20:04
[Daryl] But summer after summer, it’s lightning brings me back. You can see it coming. Follow its path from five miles away. When storm clouds roll in from the west: I take off my ring, watch glasses, anything metal. I sit on the edge of the bed, put my feet up on the lightning stool and wait. The sky jigsaws. My scalp tingles.
00:03:20:06 - 00:03:28:22
[Daryl] Suddenly, for an instant, everything’s clear.
00:03:28:24 - 00:03:33:05
[Chris] Beautiful. Okay.
[Daryl] Thank you.
[Chris] Thank you so much for sharing that.
