CLOUD WATCHER: a fire lookout's book of days

LARGER PAGES, LARGER PRINT. True to Shakespeare’s quote, “The world itself is the book we ultimately need to read,” the author, Wayne Pease offers us a glimpse of his life story in the Cloud Watcher. As one who’s read “the world” by virtue of his job as a forest fire lookout, Pease gives a vivid account of the scruples of his job and life in general. Ultimately, his account sounds like a fusion of human emotion, both the good and the bad. The lookout poet as he calls himself, has combined the events of several fire seasons into one book. This has resulted in ninety essays or days. Part 1 (The Little Death) covers the first twenty-eight days. Herein, the reader perceives a man inundated by mortality. Through several familiar characters, he tries to make sense of life; for example, he asks Elvira, his tarot-reader friend, to tell him about the future of the Forest Service. Part 2 (High Fire Season) which covers the next forty-four days, describes his day-to-day work circumstances. Living in the forest, he wants people to view him as “less wild and strange,” a man whose part of their world. He’s also not impervious of the changing face of the Forest Service workers, how the new breed doesn’t come to the task with a basic loyalty to the land. Part 3 (Waiting for the World’s End), is on accepting the inevitable. Change’s all around – old-timers are retiring, pay-cuts are the norm, and the Age of Information is here; but the death knell for them is when the Service decides to put volunteers on the lookouts. Suddenly, after so many years in service, they may be forced to re-train for a new profession. Lastly, the Epilogue contains poems entitled, “Goodbye to Battle 1979.”