Read By: Kenzie Allen

<p><em>Kenzie Allen on her selection:</em></p> <p>Growing up, I spent precious time each summer on a fire lookout, Sand Mountain, in the Oregon Cascades, and I still return there to volunteer with my father, as happened just last week. Each time I read “deer crowd up to see the lamp,” and “pancakes every morning of the world,” I’m transported back to the mountains, even (and especially) when I’m sitting on the fire lookout itself. For Philip Whalen, Gary Snyder, Jack Kerouac, and for me, these places invite philosophy and meditation, and an openness to wonder, which I hope Whalen’s “Sourdough Mountain Lookout” can inspire for others.</p> <p><a href= "https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/50467/sourdough-mountain-lookout"> "Sourdough Mountain Lookout,"</a> by Philip Whalen</p> <p><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Music: “Shift of Currents” by Blue Dot Sessions // CC BY-NC 2.0</span></p>