Poem of the Month - October

Absinthe with Eddie There's an age that people get stuck at. (Some of my schoolfriends were already forty, and others still are; others hit adolescence once, and never moved on.) You're different. You're younger than when we first met a generation ago. While the rest of us have been taking good hold of the passing years, turning them into something solid and durable around us - to keep the world out and ourselves trapped safely in - you've been dismantling Time and Space into words, sounds and silences... Some friends and I paid you a visit recently. Lunch over, you prepared an afternoon tray of glasses and illegal absinthe. You invited us to go on, give it a try - When I picture you now, I picture you smiling: in every poem, you're offering us the unexpected taste of Life itself - as something altogether new, and ours for the having. Ron Butlin Poem supplied by the Scottish Poetry Library

About the poet Ron Butlin says 'I was born in Edinburgh and brought up in Hightae, a small village outside Lockerbie. Having left school at sixteen, I hitchhiked to London where, among many other jobs - including being a barnacle scraper on Thames barges, a footman attending embassies and country houses, a labourer, security guard - I began writing song lyrics for a pop band. When the band fell apart, I drifted abroad. A few years later I became an artists' model for students (at the same college as Sean Connery!) and read philosophy at university - then, after further travelling, I returned to Edinburgh where I now live with my wife, the writer Regi Claire, and our golden retriever, Amber. These days I write full-time: poetry, fiction, journalism - mostly for the Sunday Herald and the Times Literary Supplement - and opera libretti. My work has won several Scottish Arts Council Book Awards. In spring 2003 I was given the only two-year Writers' Bursary ever awarded in the history of the Scottish Arts Council. In summer last year I was appointed Poet in Residence at the National Gallery of Scotland. In addition to several collections of poetry and short stories I have published two novels: The Sound of my Voice and Night Visits. The French translation of The Sound of my Voice was awarded Le Prix MillePages 2004 and Prix Lucioles 2005 (both for Best Foreign Novel). My most recent book, Vivaldi and the Number 3 (Serpent's Tail, July 2004) is a collection of themed short stories and well-known Western composers and philosophers. These surreal tales relate previously undocumented events from the history of Western civilisation. In May 2005 Lyell Cresswell's chamber opera - Good Angel, Bad Angel - was premiered at the Traverse Theatre before going on a most successful tour. For this new work I wrote a libretto loosely based on R.L. Stevenson's story Markheim. The featured poem, Absinthe with Eddie, comes from my new collection: Without a Backward Glance: New and Selected Poems. This book was launched at the National Library of Scotland during the festival. Next year will see the publication of a new novel, Belonging, which draws on my earlier wanderings across the globe. Also a collection of short stories, a new opera and a radio play - with a bit of luck!'

The inspiration behind the poem Ron says 'Absinthe with Eddie arose from the delightful and occasional all-afternoon lunches that Edwin Morgan, Scotland's greatest living poet, hosted while still in his Glasgow flat. Several of us writers would get the train across from Edinburgh - the mainstay were Andrew Greig, Ken McLeod, Iain Banks, Brian McCabe and myself. On one particularly memorable day, our most convivial late lunch was followed by illegal absinthe which Eddie had somehow procured from Czechoslovakia. There was a real twinkle in his eye as he initiated us into its mysteries - and for a short time we all felt like Scottish Baudelaires! The poem seeks to express enjoyable times shared, and is an affectionate tribute to a good friend and a very fine poet.'

If you have enjoyed this poem, you can borrow a range of poetry from The Scottish Poetry Library, who also lend by post. Telephone 0131 557 2876 or email reception@spl.org.uk. For an online catalogue, poetry events listings and more featured poems, please visit the Scottish Poetry Library website.