The idea that we can find meaning through the foresight, dreams and revelations of others is a powerful one and has intrigued writers throughout history, both those who believe in the idea of visions and those who take a more sceptical approach. In the work of poets Don Paterson and Joan Michelson and cultural critic and novelist, Marina Warner, the profound significance of the visionary is explored in an eclectic range of moving, significant and engaging pieces of writing.

Marina Warner said of her fascination with myths and spirituality - 'I am sceptical by intellect, but wildly believing by imagination.' Although there may be an apparent dichotomy in this, it is this sense of openness that adds to the wonder and excitement created around the entrancing ideas of spiritualism, prophecies and metaphors that she explores the extract from her book of non-fiction Phantasmagoria: Spirit Visions, Metaphors and Media.

Don Paterson's versions of 'Sonnets to Orpheus' capture Rilke's original poems with elegance, musicality and sensuality. Using the work of this unconventional German poet, Paterson is able to explore his own beliefs around visions and imagery as it is apparent in common day life- the taste of fruit, the earth and plants.

Joan Michelson's husband died in unexceptional circumstances, and her writing is a homage to both the ordinariness and extraordinariness of death. Tender and raw, her poetry and prose reveals the long-lasting effects of a grief that has been given form through her writing as memory, dreams and prophecy create haunting images in this powerful elegy.

Marina Warner

Marina Warner's award-winning studies of mythology and fairy tales include Alone of All her Sex: The Myth and the Cult of the Virgin Mary (1976), Monuments & Maidens: The Allegory of the Female Form (1985), From the Beast to the Blonde (1994), and No Go the Bogeyman: Scaring, Lulling and Making Mock (1998). Her novel The Lost Father (1988) was shortlisted for the Booker Prize; she has since published Indigo (1992), The Leto Bundle (2000) and two collections of short stories including 'Murderers I Have Known' (2002). Her Reith Lectures, 'Managing Monsters: Six Myths of Our Time' appeared in 1994, and 'Fantastic Metamorphoses; Other Worlds'(Clarendon Lectures) in 2002. Phantasmagoria, her study of spirits, will be published in the autumn of 2006 by Oxford University Press.

Photograph: Elke Bocke

Don Paterson

Don Paterson works as an editor and musician, and teaches at the University of St Andrews. He lives in Kirriemuir, Angus. His most recent collection of poetry is 'Landing Light' (Faber), which won the T. S. Eliot and Whitbread poetry prizes. 'The Book of Shadows' (Picador), a collection of aphorisms, was published in 2004.

Photograph: Don Paterson

Joan Michelson

Joan Michelson teaches Creative Writing at Birkbeck College, University of London. Her poems, essays and fiction have been published in magazines and book anthologies including previous volumes of New Writing. Her poetry chapbook, 'Letting in the Light', was Editor's Choice publication, Poeticmatrix Press, USA in 2002. She won first prize in Londonart's international poetry competition, 2005.

Photograph:M. Gintis

Illustration © Maurizio Marmorato