The Mountain Knows the Mountain: a Fire Watch Diary by Phillip Connors
After fourteen summers as a fire lookout in the Gila Wilderness, award‑winning writer Philip Connors was forced to take a year off to recover from an injury. Upon returning, he approached the mountain with renewed intention, keeping a detailed diary throughout the fire season.
The result is The Mountain Knows the Mountain, written in the centuries‑old haibun form that blends prose with traditional haiku. Connors interweaves close observation,personal reflection, memory, and decades of hard-won knowledge about the forest, the mountain, and fire.
Both immediate and mythic, the book captures the rhythms and moods of a long wildfire season, incorporating contributions from Connors’ partner, Mónica Ortiz Uribe, and his late friend Bobby Byrd. Paired with the author’s own simple drawings, the work offers a vivid, multifaceted portrait of intimacy with the wild.
