> Hello Grasshopper,
                    Many thanks for your comments on this one. Yes, I can see it´s a bit obscure and that to the extent of being unapproachable, perhaps. I felt from the beginning that `spam´ and `bank´ was a risk and I´m sure that a multitude of `meanings´ may suggest themselves to different readers. I hoped that one `meaning´ might be `sperm bank´, especially considering the close proximity of `pregnant´ though where the reader´s going to go from there is still uncertain. For me it raises the good-old-famous subject of sex at a very general level. I think the poem is `about´ uncovering a deceit and the way that everything can look different once one has the right knowledge. Even the position of the furniture might `tell´ a story to the person who knows how to interpret it. And also the words spoken by the deceiver no longer have their face value, they `mean´ something quite different....like `spam´ and `bank´. I don´t know if this makes any sense, though.


Best wishes,   Mike


> > 
> Dear Mike,
>       I've read this several times, but still can't come up with a
> satisfactory interpretation, so my ultimate reaction is frustration.The
> 'spam' reference, of course, made me think of the Internet -- but I'm not
> sure how 'bank' ties in with that - it doesn't seem to be about online
> banking....
> Also it seems to me the title is a missed opportunity to give the reader a
> lead in to the poem, as you specify in S2 that what the poem is about
> (whatever that is) is not clairvoyance, but something like it (so why title
> the poem 'Clairvoyance'?).
> There are poetic devices like metre, assonance, etc that make the 'literal
> meaning' of a poem less important, eg sheer musicality can carry a poem, but
> without these elements, I feel this piece is too obscure to be satisfying.
> Kind regards,
>      grasshopper
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Mike Horwood" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Monday, May 17, 2004 9:21 AM
> Subject: [THE-WORKS] New sub: Clairvoyance
> 
> 
> Clairvoyance
> 
> It was like learning to read
> all over again. The most ordinary
> words, like `spam´ and `bank´
> were pregnant with new meaning.
> 
> Clairvoyance must be something like this,
> she thought, stepping into the house
> and hearing sounds that had died
> some hours before.
> 
> The chairs stated their position with force,
> offering a seat in clarification,
> the curtains held a rush of air
> in their folds that murmured to her.
> 
> As a child she had dreamed
> of a mirror that recorded on its surface
> every image it had ever reflected
> and the power that would give over things.
> 
> 
> 
> Mike
>