Selected poems from John Porter's new collection A Path of Shadows...

You are with me still

The sun at my back walking

A Path of Shadows

A Path of Shadows is climber and writer John Porter's first published collection of poetry. Exploring the natural world, family ties and physical science as well as his climbing life, the collection is a reflection of Porter's sharp and broad intellect, and of his desire to express his feelings, beliefs and life experiences through poetry.

Born in Massachusetts in 1957, Porter learned to climb with the Appalachian Mountain Club in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. His notable mountaineering achievements include pioneering alpine style ascents of the NE Face of Bandaka (1977) and the S. Buttress of Changabang (1978), S. Face Ranrapulka (1979) and S.E Ridge Tarke Kang (1982) with Alex MacIntyre.

Published to great acclaim in 2014, Porter's biography of Alex MacIntyre One Day as a Tiger won the Grand Prize at the Banff Mountain Book Festival.

These three poems are taken from A Path of Shadows, published in July 2022 by Little Peak Press and available from all online sources and your local bookshop.

Passing by

When passing by
and looking up,
on golden snows
and mountain thrones,

Strange to know
This place I've been,
to walk the sky
within my bones.

Such paradise lives
beyond the world
beyond the reach
of comfort zones.

Summit Storms

Our moments among the clouds
are few... we are not like rain
knowing no fear, so afternoons at altitude
often fires imaginary storms...
our instincts flash with uncertainty.

When real thunder rolls round,
we become like drums full
of deafening sounds, ropes tangle
like emotions, while joy flies down
to the valley where we hope to sleep.

Months later, we solo to those summits
in silence, remembering climbs among the clouds.
Now we allow storm and sky to embrace us,
deciding the fate of our dreams, as if
life was a mere drop of moisture.

Leaving the Mountains

As I drive home, I imagine an ice axe swung
And crampons finding purpose on thin images
Of past climbs that might just last forever.

The truth we tested lay on north faces:
No joy till the top, no hope of living
Except moving up to where the warmth awaits

Those hard uncertainties shared so steeply
Gathered divisions of our lives together
No luxury of fate fixed in stars.

Yet still that touch of the mountain made,
The hard connections to a way above
Created a link, what we had to do just to be.

Now we face the golden sun descending.
At our back, vast ranges stretch horizons
Like a smile connecting earth with heaven.

Perhaps beyond the furthest dark ranges
We will find what time has not allowed us:
Those signposts to all the unknown places.

These mountains will know all our memories
And we their realities of wind and ice
When we share the same silver dark sea.

Written over a period of 50 years, A Path of Shadows is writer and mountaineer John Porter's first poetry collection. 'A Path of Shadows is an evocative exploration of landscape and memory, observed from both the rational and romantic sides of the brain. Porter's poetry is at once lyrical and searingly sharp.' - Bernadette McDonald