The image of the clock in Here and There invites the reader to read the texts in order, perhaps starting at 12 o’clock; while at the same time it presents the challenge of breaking the structure and jumping randomly from one number to the other. In doing this, the reader might discover the echo in lines that evoke others or feel the weight of brief pieces that could stand as a single, definitive image. But what looks like a clock is really a chart much larger its scope. The lack of sound in this poem (which contrasts other works by Norman, like “Window“), underlines the vastness of the universe contained in the chart and which is also suggested by the images and the allusions to celestial bodies.
The poem is written in HTML with some JavaScript, and its appearance is controlled by a CSS file. Interestingly, the divisions of the text in the source code (<div id=”t1″>, <div id=”t2″>, etc) start with t1, which corresponds to XII, and then continue in order, I, II, III, perhaps suggesting that the first impulse to start at midnight was neither random nor foolish.