Turn Around Time

Turn Around Time is a book-length poem graced by Justin Gibbens' fine illustrations and published by Mountaineers Books.

"Turn around time" is a mountaineering term for that pre-designated clock moment when, no matter what--and with a view toward peril--climbers begins their return to base camp.  Figuratively speaking, it refers to a pivotal possibility in our lives--that of personal transformation, of a return to sources after decades of outward travel.

Turn Around Time, in a sense, happened to me over the course of two weeks.  The music of the poem began to play inside my head, and I rode along on its propulsive rhythm happily to the end.  It's a journey through quintessential and iconic Northwest mountain landscapes--the poetry of a hiker and climber who returns to the same trails, river valleys, and peaks year after year.  It offers a poetic take on the qualities of foot travel and of, among other things, birds, bats, fungi, flora, and fellow travelers.  

Praise

An Independent Publisher Book Award Winner

“Turn Around Time is a non-fiction testament to the beauty of being in Northwest wilderness, and it’s written in verse. If you’ve ever been stunned by the varieties of green available in one square foot of the rain forest out on the Olympic Peninsula, this is the book for you.” Seattle Review of Books

“[Turn Around Time] reads like a cerebral exercise in the outdoors, a poem not simply about hiking, but about the journey of life itself.... T.S. Eliot mixed with a tad of Walt Whitman and The Beats (the “poets of the peaks,” like Jack Kerouac and Gary Snyder), poetry unafraid of big words and big thoughts, a rain forest or mountain range of ideas.”  Crosscut

“Ultimately, this is a book to be read several times―not just at home, but on the trail as well (it's small enough to take on your next backcountry adventure). The poem will lead you to look more carefully at the nature around you, heightening your sense of the magic inherent in the wild.” Alpinist