> I´m sending this again as I think the first sending failed. My apologies if it appears twice. 
> > 
> 
> > Hello Christina,
>                   Thanks for your further thoughts on this one. You raise some interesting points, as always. The point about being distanced from emotions is one of them. I think I would say, off the top of my head, that I would always be in some sense distanced from emotions when I write. I think this topic has come up before. My own position ( which may be misguided and is open to revision) is that most writers are unlikely to produce their best work as an outpouring of emotion. I don´t know if that´s exactly what you´re saying here, but I would expect that Paul´s Tractor poem, real, obsessive and driven as it is, was probably the product of careful thought and a distanced, critical, reasoning perception. I may be wrong, and Paul may put me right, but that would be my guess. Of course, I don´t mean to suggest that being distanced guarantees a good or effective poem. From a poor poet it may produce a frigid one, and that is perhaps what you mean by `repressed´. Of course, in a sense Gift is all in the head (whose?) and is about repression since that is where one ends up if one´s desires are expressed only through the imagination. I was interested that you commented that Gift was (too) tidy and made sense. Did you find that the ideas I later explained really did come across? As far as I can identify my own voice at all I think of it as rather obsessive and perhaps repressed fits too, perhaps even better. In fact, I rather like the idea of producing a large body of really repressed poems, something really claustrophobic. I think I would call the collection Orchids from the Hothouse. I have now ramboled far enough and will sign off.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Best wishes,   Mike
> 
> 
> > Lähettäjä: Christina Fletcher <[log in to unmask]>
> > Päiväys: 2003/11/04 ti PM 04:06:51 GMT+02:00
> > Vastaanottaja: [log in to unmask]
> > Aihe: Re: New sub: Gift
> > 
> > Fischl (or Kahlo if we're talking big bloomers) takes huge risks in paint.  
> > His imagery (some of which relates so directly to yours) isn't beating about 
> > the bush at all but it still works on many levels (including humour).  I don't 
> > think you're getting what you're talking about across in your poem yet.  It's 
> > still very much in your own head.  I get that feeling with your musical chairs 
> > poem too.
> > I think Paul's Tractor poem's a good example of taking risks.  It feels real, 
> > obsessive and not concerned with whether it makes 'sense'.  With yours, I 
> > feel that there's a distancing from (your own) emotions: they're that bit too 
> > tidy, too intelligent and (dare I say?) repressed. 
> > Oh well, I'd better get back to the ward and take my medication...
> > bw,
> > christina
> > 
> > > >Great. Thanks a lot for this, Christina. I forgot to say in my earlier 
> > > reply that I didn´t know the painting. Yes, it´s very appropriate, isn´t it, 
> > > even down to the bowl of fruit. Pity there isn´t a large and lurid orchid as 
> > > well. It´s maybe taking comparison too far, but if I had to delineate where this 
> > > painting and my poem do and don´t overlap I would say that my male figure is 
> > > not `really´ there in the room. 
> > 
> > 
>