The poet Cas Vos has already established a reputation with his previous collections of love poetry. In Intimately Absent he once again touches on the themes of love and loss. In this remarkable collection, beautifully translated by Leon de Kock, he depicts the gripping tale of the doomed medieval lovers, the philosopher Peter Abelard and the nun Heloise, by way of a dialogue. The poems are based on the actual letters they wrote each other after they were so cruelly separated. In this dialogue the poet succeeds in making their longing for each other very real. The series is concluded with poems that give voice to their child, Astralabe. In these he tells of his yearning for the parents he never knew. In the last section the sombre shadow of death comes to the fore, but even here love tempers all.