Poems about rock climbing

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 Slackboot 13 Dec 2019

Are there any good ones? I know that a number of rock climbers are accomplished artists or writers but what about poets?

 Hat Dude 13 Dec 2019
 Andy Clarke 13 Dec 2019
In reply to Slackboot:

For contemporary stuff, checkout David Wilson's recently published volume The Equilibrium Line. I gave it a glowing review in the Nov/Dec edition of Climber - which also features one of his poems (about teenage summers at Tremadog). Helen Mort is now becoming quite well known, and writes a good deal about the outdoors, including climbing and mountaineering. Checkout No Map Could Show Them.

If you know any CC members, the last published Journal (2017-18) features a good selection of climbing poetry - and accompanying photographs - by, among others, Mark Goodwin and me. (My mutant haiku about a rather graceless ascent of Parallel Piped at Froggat appeared in the Jul-Aug edition of Climber, if you can find a copy lying around in a hut somewhere.)

Not contemporary, but a must-read is Edwin Drummond's collection A Dream of White Horses: mainly prose, but interspersed with some fine free verse.

Hope that gives you something to get started.

 kamala 13 Dec 2019
In reply to Slackboot:

For more contemporary poems, Helen Mort is outstanding:

https://www.versopolis-poetry.com/poet/125/helen-mort

I particularly like her "Easy Day for a Lady":   https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jun/04/saturday-poem-an-easy-day-for...

(cross posted with Andy Clarke's very good round up above)

Post edited at 11:25
 Andy Clarke 13 Dec 2019
In reply to Slackboot:

Another name I should have mentioned: Andrew Greig - who started as an 'armchair' climber writing from his imagination, then became the real thing, after Mal Duff took him to the Greater Ranges!

 Tom Last 13 Dec 2019
In reply to Slackboot:

From back in the mists of Rocktalk...

https://www.ukhillwalking.com/forums/rock_talk/i_know_that_i_shall_meet_my_fat...

This is the book that resulted from that initial thread:

https://tinyurl.com/u86nvos

Post edited at 11:46
OP Slackboot 13 Dec 2019
In reply to Slackboot:

Thankyou to all for the info. 😊

 JimmAwelon 13 Dec 2019
In reply to Slackboot:
Showell Styles wrote The Ballad of Idwal Slabs

https://www.monologues.co.uk/Sport/Idwal_Slabs.htm

 webbo 13 Dec 2019
In reply to Slackboot:

> Are there any good ones? I know that a number of rock climbers are accomplished artists or writers but what about poets?

I really hope that there isn’t.

7
russellcampbell 13 Dec 2019
In reply to Andy Clarke:

Andrew Greig wrote the second part of "You know what you could be" with Mike Heron. It is the best book about music I've read. It is also great for describing how dismal a wet Sunday in Scotland in the early 1960s could be and contains a lot of anecdotes about hill walking / climbing. He has also written a great book about unfashionable, often remote, golf courses run on a shoestring by enthusiastic amateurs. - Again, contains some hill walking / climbing stories.  I could imagine his poems are very good.

 Mark Goodwin 15 Dec 2019
In reply to Slackboot:

Hlo!

Regarding Andrew Greig: His absolute must collections are ‘Men on Ice’ & ‘Western Swing’ ... out of print  years ago ... you can, if you are keen, get the originals still ... however, these have now both been subsumed into a new single volume called ‘Getting Higher – The Complete Mountain Poems.’ This is glorious, and very beautifully designed with illustrations by James Hutcheson.

Regarding Helen Mort: Helen’s poem in the anthology ‘Waymaking’ – ‘The Climb’ – is very special. I read this outloud to Johnny Dawes and he was entranced by it, and felt that it really did touch something true about climbing – so there you go,  good on Helen! The poem starts: ‘ The climb begins / under cigarette-smoke sky / below a rock’s mossed fin. // No. The climb begins / in sinew, muscles twitching / on the landscape’s brim [ ... ].

There are other poets in ‘Waymaking’. Joanna Croston’s ‘Falling’ is brilliant, as is ‘To Follow’ by Claire Carter.

Yvonne Reddick’s ‘Translating Mountains’ is very strong. I’ve heard Yvonne read her poetry – she does not focus so much on rock-climbing, but her work is essential for anyone who loves hills and crags.

Right, I’m now, going to do bit of a plug, something I’m not that keen on doing. However, my publisher, Longbarrow Press (based in Sheffield) makes no money out of publishing, and works ridiculously hard to get poetry out there ... so, I really should make the effort. My book – ‘Rock as Gloss – is my first to focus on climbing, and also mountain navigation. The book also includes some fiction. I must warn you though, it is a tad left-of-field, so far so that lots of folks are not that keen on it. Andrew Greig has done a wee review of ‘Rock as Gloss’ here: https://markgoodwinrockasgloss.wordpress.com/acclaim/ . Typical for Longbarrow, this hardback is beautifully produced - quite a physical object in itself. There is an ‘album’ to accompany the book, free to listen to and download here: https://markgoodwin-poet-sound-artist.bandcamp.com/album/from-rock-as-gloss... (The ‘Tale of The Journey’ was recorded in Dinorwig Quarries, and tells a ‘fairytale’ of voyaging with Johnny Dawes.)

Right, back to Andrew Greig, and to finish off icily, here’s the start of ‘Intro’ from Andrew’s ‘Men on Ice.’: ‘Let us define the terms of the game. / There are 3 on the ice-face, / Grimpeur, Axe Man, Poet.

OP Slackboot 15 Dec 2019
In reply to Mark Goodwin:

Thank you for that. I will definitely check it all out. ☺

Dude. You are the man! 😁 your stuff looks cool.

Post edited at 21:34
 Mark Goodwin 15 Dec 2019
In reply to Slackboot:

Thank you!

 Doug 16 Dec 2019
In reply to Mark Goodwin:

good to hear that Men on Ice & Western Swing are back in print as part of a collected edition as I can't find my copies of the originals. Will try & get a copy.

 Mark Goodwin 16 Dec 2019
In reply to Doug:

Good! It really is well worth it. New poems in there too ...

 Mark Goodwin 16 Dec 2019
In reply to Andy Clarke:

Thank you for the mention, Andy! 

 Andy Clarke 16 Dec 2019
In reply to Mark Goodwin:

> Thank you for the mention, Andy! 

My pleasure. I thoroughly enjoyed reading your stuff in the CCJ. I see at least one of those was from Rock as Gloss.  Based on that, I'm surprised people think it's too left-of-field. Maybe they need to get out more. (I can't help myself when it comes to egregious wordplay - which is sadly obvious in my poems.) Has Rock as Gloss been reviewed in Climber?

 Mark Goodwin 16 Dec 2019
In reply to Andy Clarke:

Andy, your compliments are much appreciated, thank you! Yes, word-play, I particularly enjoyed your 'Warm Up Routine' - witty with tight musical pattern made from climberish chat.

My poems in the CC journal - yes, a few little ones from 'Rock as Gloss'. Also one from 'Steps' ( Longbarrow Press 2014). And also from 'All Space Away and In' (chapbook published by Shearsman Books 2017.)

'Stone Peace', in memory of Robert O. Downes, has not been published before - the CC Journal is the first publisher, and that poem is uncollected, I've not yet made a book for it to live in.

Thank you for asking about reviews. 'Rock as Gloss' has only been reviewed by Andrew Greig, on the book's micro-site https://markgoodwinrockasgloss.wordpress.com/acclaim/ , and also just now, on UKC, by the splendid, friendly and superbly inquisitive Rob Greenwood. https://www.ukclimbing.com/gear/publications/other_publications/christmas_b...

Regarding left-of-field. I might be wrong, but I have perceived so far, over three decades of learning to write poetry, that in the UK poetry-scenes, my kind of work tends to divide readers/critics, rather in the same way that Marmite is alleged to divide human taste-buds! It amazes me how much people can get so deeply upset about what other people choose to create - I was once informed (not to my face) that the kind of poetry I make should be burned! 

To quote Andrew Greig, from 'Men On Ice':

No, Poet, 

people are feared to fall 'off'

and 'out'

   off the ledge

   off the boil

   out of sight

   out of their minds

...

 felt 16 Dec 2019
In reply to Slackboot:

Wilfrid Noyce wrote the well-known poem "South Col", but don't know about any poems specific to rock climbing, although I would be surprised if he didn't write a few. Ditto Al Alvarez, and possibly A.D.M. Cox.

Rigid Raider 16 Dec 2019
In reply to Slackboot:

I bought a book of the poetry of Geoffrey Winthrop-Young the mountaineer. Most of his poetry (what I could read in the partially uncut book) is too melodramatic for me but I love this verse:

Then they heaped rocks and boulders mountain high
with stairs of snow up to Orion’s door.
And climbed together singing to the sky
and no one saw them go.

 Andy Clarke 16 Dec 2019
In reply to Mark Goodwin:

Glad you enjoyed Warm Up Routine. I'd be surprised if David Simmonite at Climber wasn't happy to include a review of Rock as Gloss in a future issue. I'll PM you about this.

 Doug 16 Dec 2019

Has David Craig (author of Native Stones) published any poetry ? his prose is quite poetic in places so it would seem likely

 Andy Clarke 16 Dec 2019
In reply to Doug:

The footless crow link above will get you to a couple of powerful poems by David Craig.

In reply to Slackboot:

Interesting thread, with a lot of thoughtful feedback + contributions.

Taking one of Mark's well-worded phrases " I might be wrong, but I have perceived so far, over three decades of learning to write poetry, that in the UK poetry-scenes, my kind of work tends to divide readers/critics".

I would actually broaden this further, because outside of the UK poetry scene I think not only Mark's work - but poetry as a whole - tends to divide readers. Some people freak out at the first sight of it, viewing it as some hostile invasion of their otherwise conventionally worded way of life. 

From a UKC perspective we've been publishing more and more poetry in recent years, with Sarah-Jane Dobner's recent piece 'The Western Isles: Checkmate" being a good example. Poetry doesn't tend to receive the same number of views as 'conventionally worded' articles, but views are by no means accurate or meaningful when it comes to deeming whether or not a published piece of work has been a success - there's a lot more subtly to it than that.

With that in mind, please keep the poetry coming - life would be boring if we exclusively stuck to those aforementioned conventionally worded pieces.

Keep the submissions coming, even if they are occasionally quite confusing...

 Mick Ward 16 Dec 2019
In reply to Mark Goodwin:

> 'Stone Peace', in memory of Robert O. Downes, has not been published before - the CC Journal is the first publisher, and that poem is uncollected, I've not yet made a book for it to live in.

Is that Bob Downes, who was active in the 1950s (e.g. second ascent of Spillikin Ridge, with Harold Drasdo)?

Mick

 Mark Goodwin 16 Dec 2019
In reply to felt:

Pretty much anything by Footlesscrow is worth a read! But yes, this is a particularly good one for poets and poetry readers ...

 Mark Goodwin 16 Dec 2019
In reply to Rigid Raider:

That is rather good - mythical, open to interpretation, and not hooked to a single climber's ego ...

 Mark Goodwin 16 Dec 2019
In reply to Mick Ward:

I rather suspect so. To confirm: My poem responds to the photo of Robert O. Downes in the CC's Downes hut, and also responds to the VS climb 'Downes' Crack', just up the scarp from the hut, in the woods, on Froggatt Edge ... the poem also laments his young death, in the 1950s, on Masherbrum.

 Mark Goodwin 16 Dec 2019
In reply to Rob Greenwood - UKClimbing:

I think it was Henry Idon (of Kendal Mountain Literature Fest), who said a few months back on Twitter, that he thought we were now experiencing in the UK the start of a climbing poetry renaissance ...

You Rob, thinking about your new baby, and where you are in your life, personally, and then relating your recent championing of poetry ... perhaps we should describe you as one the midwives of climbing poetry's renaissance ...

Your efforts are hugely appreciated! 

 Mark Goodwin 16 Dec 2019
In reply to Andy Clarke:

Thank you, Andy! Be good to look into that ...

Not entirely sure if it was the same Climber magazine, it was called at the time Climber & Hillwalker, but decades ago, when Tom Prentice was editor of Climber, I published some young poems inspired by and alongside paintings by Anthony 'Ginger' Caine. A little later I also put together pages & pages of various poets' work, and this was published, spread over two issues of the magazine. And then Tom commissioned me to write pieces on various poets. I wrote just one piece, on Gary Snyder. I was set to write about eight or so more over the coming months ... but unfortunately Tom resigned the editorship in protest, I think due to a picture of the face of a frozen dead mountaineer being published in the magazine without Tom's permission, whilst he was away, perhaps on expedition ... anyway, the next editor had no interest in poetry, so that was that ...

Tom Prentice's wife/partner is poet Gerrie Fellows. Gerrie was very encouraging of my very young work, at the time. She is actually one of my essential encouragers. I've not communicated with her since then, however, I've certainly read her poetry. She is a very very strong poet. She doesn't write so much about rock climbing, but she certainly writes about Scottish mountains and place, I hugely recommend her 'Uncommon Place'.  https://www.shearsman.com/store/Gerrie-Fellows-Uncommon-Place-p121079424 

 Mick Ward 16 Dec 2019
In reply to Mark Goodwin:

Yes, it's the same Bob Downes.

I didn't know that Tom resigned because of that photo. I remember protesting strongly about it. I thought Tom was a great editor and retain huge respect for him.

Mick

1
 Mark Goodwin 16 Dec 2019
In reply to Mick Ward:

Well, I remember it that way ... you would have to hear from him to confirm it, but yes I did think he resigned over that. 

And yes, a great editor. I mean, at that time spreading pages of poetry over two issues - wonderfully bold. 

mark

 Mark Goodwin 16 Dec 2019
In reply to Rob Greenwood - UKClimbing:

Hlo Rob! This obviously moves away from poetry, but I thought this thread might be the best place.

Interested in what you were saying about ‘climbing fiction’ in your UKC review of Helen’s Black Car Burning. https://www.ukclimbing.com/gear/publications/other_publications/christmas_b... . I suspect the term ‘climbing fiction’ is sometimes misunderstood, in the same way that ‘sci-fi’ is misunderstood. So, Star Wars, that first astounding and amazing movie – I’d say it’s not sci-fi, you could simply replace the spaceships for ocean-going salty ships, and the Empire with the Romans (or more likely Nazis!) – there is nothing conceptually science fiction going on, really (v little). Whereas a film like The Matrix, is pure sci-fi, the whole thing is an excuse to put the human condition in a bizarre and extreme setting to explore what it is to be human, or not human! Star Wars doesn’t do that, although it is wonderful. I think the term ‘speculative fiction’ is more useful, because of course, anything with ray-guns and hyper-space is fictitious about science!  So, not at all to dismiss such masterful story-telling and film-making, but Star Wars is a Western with ray-guns (Oh, and light-sabers! ). Whilst The Matrix is speculative fiction about the human psyche in relation to ‘machine intelligence.’ It opens up new ground. I'm sure you are fully aware of what I've just banged on about, and are probably wondering what exactly this has got to do with climbing fiction ... ? Well, when one says ‘climbing fiction’, are we talking about stories about climbing adventures, just made up climbing adventures, which you understandably object to, or are we talking about writing that uses the extreme - and in fact bizarre - scenario of climbing and climbing drives as a setting in which to explore the human? The rare experience of climbing offers writers another kind of speculative environment to push boundaries about what it means to be a human animal, or indeed a social human being. You do get at this when you say: “ it's the bits that aren't about climbing that are the best.” But for me, it’s the bits that seem to be about climbing, but are not! To bring it back round to poetry - so, my own piece of climbing fiction, The Ewe Stone, in Rock as Gloss, is not really about climbing, it is about poetry, or rather poetics.

 Mick Ward 16 Dec 2019
In reply to Mark Goodwin:

Mountain 4 was almost entirely about Yosemite. Not 1% of British climbers had ever been there at the time. Hell we couldn't even pronounce it properly!  Tom would have been aware of Ken's boldness. And those poetry issues were indeed wonderfully bold.

Mick

 Mark Goodwin 16 Dec 2019
In reply to Mick Ward:

Yes, when I was s boy, mid-teens I think, I read a copy of Mountain! And one can't really think of Ken without thinking of 'bold' !  

 planetmarshall 16 Dec 2019
In reply to Mark Goodwin:

> Regarding Helen Mort: Helen’s poem in the anthology ‘Waymaking’ – ‘The Climb’ – is very special. I read this outloud to Johnny Dawes and he was entranced by it, and felt that it really did touch something true about climbing...

Here it is in full. It is, as you say, pretty special.

https://www.johnmuirtrust.org/about/resources/1780-waymaking-the-climb-by-h...

 Mark Goodwin 16 Dec 2019
In reply to planetmarshall:

Thank you for that. How fab! Brilliant that that is on line. I will tweet it. Yes, one of my very fave climbing poems.

In reply to Mark Goodwin:

Hi Mark,

You've made an interesting distinction there, one that I had never quite considered.

When it comes to 'climbing fiction' I was a bit limited in what I could say within the short word count I had, hence it may not have been quite clear. I went into greater detail on this in the review I wrote of Sky Dance, but even then there's quite a lot more to say about it - hence your thoughts and comments are quite timely. 

Looking back on it, my comment regarding how "it's the bits that aren't about climbing that are the best” might have been a bit flippant, and - looking back on it - doesn't do the book, or Helen's writing, justice. Black Car Burning deserves a much longer review in order to give it the time and respect it deserves, as it is quite unlike any piece of climbing literature I've read before. To go back to what you're saying about using climbing - weird, wonderful and whacky as it is - as a means of exploration, I think BCB achieves something in fiction, through climbing, that it would be impossible to achieve in non-fiction. The climbing, and the climbers, are the mediums through which Helen gets to the nub of a whole host of issues both personal, social, and political. Maybe I'm lacking imagination, and I know I'm repeating myself here, but I just don't know how you'd achieve this in non-fiction without it becoming very detailed and quite dry.

This is a little different to what you described (i.e. "for me, it’s the bits that seem to be about climbing, but are not"), but hopefully that gives a bit better insight into what I was getting at, why I enjoyed it, and why I am now quite curious as to what the future holds for the genre.

Considering my levels of cynicism regarding climbing fiction at the start of the year I am now far more intrigued as to its potential as a result of BCB.

 Mark Goodwin 16 Dec 2019
In reply to Rob Greenwood - UKClimbing:

Well, I must confess I've yet to read BCB! But looking forward ...

I guess you know Mike Harrison's The Climbers ... ?

Do you know Dermot Somers' short stories? His collections Mountains and Other Ghosts & At The Rising of The Moon ?

And there is poet & novelist Alison Fell - her novel Mere de Glace ... convoluted intense human relationship stuff, I seem to remember, and very poetic ...

It is perhaps not so well known that Jim Perrin writes fiction also, and that it is extremely good. His short story collection A Snow Goose is startling. It doesn't all focus on climbing, but it certainly is focused on mountains and wild landscapes. And his story that includes a polar bear attack is really frightening - better not mention that one to Nick! 

And as for you lacking imagination - NO! From what I know about you, that really is not true!  

 Rob Parsons 19 Dec 2019
In reply to Mark Goodwin:

> Do you know Dermot Somers' short stories? His collections Mountains and Other Ghosts & At The Rising of The Moon ?

> And there is poet & novelist Alison Fell - her novel Mere de Glace ... convoluted intense human relationship stuff, I seem to remember, and very poetic ...

And once again we have Ken Wilson to thank for making those available.


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