apophenia

by The English Collective

Belgian philosopher, Justinus Kerner, noticed that inkspots began appearing on the pages of his work by chance in the later stages of his life as his eyesight began to deteriorate. Kerner noticed that folding a sheet of paper while trapping the inkspot within could produce fascinating shapes that were mirror reflections of each other. Intrigued by these figures, he went onto develop poetry inspired by these shapes. Kerner used them to illustrate his works creating what we’d come to later known as klecksography. He went onto publish a collection of this poetry entitled Klecksographien, in 1890. This was the inspiration for Rorschach’s psychoanalytical works.After Swiss psychiatrist, Henrik Rorschach, published his work Psychodiagnostik, he famously used hand-painted images to psychoanalyse his patients. The inkblots seemed to resemble nature in one way or another and this later became known to be due to the human tendency to see patterns resembling nature and drawing parallels from seemingly random things. For those who like to dabble in what makes us human, Rorschach inkblot tests have been used to explore the deepest recesses of our psyche since the mid-twentieth century. The creative process behind /apophenia/ was to compile a collection of poetry inspired by the diverse emotions that control us and the opposing sides of our personalities that determine who we are as people. Poetry is one of the most thought-provoking, challenging and debated subjects in literature. The quest for a true meaning is one a reader can anguish over endlessly. It is the ultimate act of both self-expression and exploration. As we enter this intimate landscape we must allow our imagination to guide us, leaving our judgements, biases and preconceptions behind. The future of poetry is in both the hands of the students throughout these pages and the students outside of academic institutions. It is in the hands of those who share a passion for the written word and for those of us who come to life when we write. Poetry is neither prejudiced nor bigoted, it is free for those who maintain their curiosity; and for those of us who do, we will remain its students until we are curious no more.Dedicated to those who use words to heal, these works are an intimate insight into the minds of a group of people who all have one thing in common, their love of poetry.

174 pages, Paperback

Published March 22, 2018