The following essay by John Burnside is taken from my forthcoming book “Long Walk Home”, a five-year project documenting the Highland Games in Scotland and the United States. I first got to know John when he was advising me on my university dissertation. The subject was the relationship between painting and writing, namely the influence that painters had on Hemingway’s early short stories. My memories of those discussions were of John leaning on his desk and, with a quiet fluency, firing off references and ideas that were near impossible to follow but mesmerising in their depth and dexterity.
I had a similar sensation the last time that I saw John in person, as we discussed our collaboration on my second book “A Voice Above the Linn” at the Stills Gallery in Edinburgh. I had given myself the task of speaking alongside him in front of an audience and like a matador was trying to navigate around the brilliant thoughts that were streaming from him. A couple of hours later, as we drank a beer together, I marvelled to myself how lucky I was not only to know him, but to have his poetry presented alongside my work.
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