By Ashley Lodato
Like many others in the wake of the summer’s fires (not to mention Joni Mitchell), I’m starting to look at clouds from both sides now.
When I see a big cloud piling up behind a ridge my first thought is not “flows of angel hair” but instead “fire!” I find myself scrutinizing clouds to make sure they’re of the ice crystals sort and not the smoke and ash type. Even a prescribed burn like the one in Mazama last week (which I overheard a couple of kids refer to repeatedly as a “subscribed burn”) makes my heart race a little. I know it’s just clouds’ illusions, but a big old cumulus cloud peeking from behind a mountain really does resemble a fire blowing up.
It seems to still be the same with sirens and helicopters for many people, too. Any sign that something of the emergency variety is happening puts us on edge. The gentle valley that nurtures us hasn’t yet reclaimed its reputation as an oasis of serenity, and until it does we’re likely to mistake every indication of individual predicament for a collective crisis.
Last week, Danica Ready joined three other poets for a reading at the Fremont branch of the Seattle Public Library. Invited by Floating Bridge Review — a publication that seeks to highlight emerging Washington state poets — and former state Poet Laureate Kathleen Flenniken, the three authors read for about 20 minutes each.
Danica read some of her lighter and funnier poems, as well as a new one about the fires this summer, and said, “I had three college friends as well as [former Methow Valley resident] Baylie Peplow in the crowd, so there were some friendly faces cheering me on. It was a fun reading.”
More fun times were had north of the border. James and Tory DeSalvo took a quick weekend break from their three little boys and relaxed with a seven-hour drive to Victoria, B.C. (Those of you with young kids will understand that a day alone in the car with no kids is not a hardship but is instead somewhat of a mini-vacation.) After that effortless jaunt and an uninterrupted night’s sleep, the two joined 1,500 other people in the tranquil pastime of running 26.2 miles through the city streets in the Victoria Marathon. One man’s grueling ordeal is another man’s luxury getaway, eh?
