Mountain Retreats, Iain Maloney’s third poetry collection, consists of two poetic cycles in the tradition of the great climbing poets, Gary Snyder and Kenneth Rexroth. Where the sky begins ranges over peaks and valleys exploring the connections between nature and health as the narrative voice retreats into the Japanese Alps while facing an unnamed illness. All of this has happened before uses the mechanisms of the rock cycle – weathering and erosion – to come to terms with mortality. Drawing on an array of imagery and references, these poems strike out in new directions before looping back on themselves, rising and falling like mountain trails, all the while seeking clarity above the trees, where the sky begins.

I think this might be my favourite book Maloney has written ever. The number of times I found I was holding my breath whilst reading this ; I love its honesty and the feeling of guidance that streams through it. Tactile, elemental and pin-sharp poetry that strips both body and landscape back to the very bones. Maloney folds time and presses it into your palm, whispering go, breathe, be. – Larissa Reid

January 2024. 78 pages. 210 x 148 mm. ISBN 978-4-907359-46-1 (paperback).

Click here to read a PDF excerpt from this book.

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