Burning Time (2021) by Annie Lampman

If, as poet Jerry Martien says, “the poem arises from the ground of its making,” then Annie Lampman’s poems rise from the intimate touch of a tree’s growth rings, the harsh passage through a desert canyon, the uncertain challenges of raising sons, quiet stories of time burning away, the ways we make a living, the ways we make a life.

“Centuries, decades,

last week. Today.

Each one burned away —

these stories we tell, lit and smoking,

waiting as one after another we all ignite.”

— from the title poem

Annie Lampman is the author of the novel Sins of the Bees (Pegasus/Simon & Schuster, 2020). She grew up in rural north central Idaho, born in a 19th century log home without running water, later moving with her family to Headquarters, Idaho, a logging company town surrounded by mountains and trees. From a young age she explored the North Fork of the Clearwater River, hiked into high mountain lakes and into the depths of Hells Canyon. She earned her MFA in writing at the University of Idaho and teaches now in Washington State University’s Honors Creative Writing Program. Recipient of several major awards, her poetry, stories, and essays have appeared or are forthcoming in over 70 literary journals and anthologies. She lives in Moscow, Idaho.

Burning Time was letterpress printed by Rick Ardinger in a limited edition of 350 copies in the summer of 2021, each sheet fed into the jaws of a Chandler & Price platen press and collated, folded, and sewn by hand into hearty paper covers.