Richard Capener
Photograph Harvey Metcalfe (1928), from Harry Price. Leaves from a Psychist's Case-Book (Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1933) [1]
I heard about the Psychical Poetics Collective around 2015 while living in Bristol. Although the city was post-slam poetry, with not much else going on, the Arnolfini hosted the bimonthly Tertulia. Curated by Phil Owen and Megan Wakefield, Tertulia presented experimental writers and interdisciplinary language practitioners. As is often the case with these events, they concluded at the pub. In conversation with another attendee who I otherwise have no recollection of (male-presenting, balding, maybe early 40s) I was informed of the Psychical Poetics Collective.
At the time of writing, the PPC do not have an online presence. The meeting around nine years ago caused me to search them out. The only information I could find was a Facebook page which, in turn, linked to a Blogspot. The following image acted as the group’s profile picture, and was easily searchable on Google Images until last year:
I can’t help but wonder if the group deleted all traces of its existence.
The PPC’s Blogspot was never updated, containing only biographical information. Any activity - events, publications - were announced on their Facebook page. (The problem when writing about the PPC should be obvious: I have to rely on memory.) These sites defined the PPC as a network of writers, stretching across multiple countries, who researched the paranormal in postwar English language poetry. This recollection is validated by a statement in their release, Session 9, reproduced below.
On scrolling back through their Facebook group, the PPC’s performance history showed one or two events a year if any. Performances were held in London, Copenhagen and Dublin.
Alongside scant events, which I never attended and can find no record of, zines were sold through Facebook by DM-ing the group. Print runs were minimal; listings were removed without warning. Single photos showed each release with no contents excerpted for advertising. All zines had monochrome covers with typewritten titles. It was clear they went backwards numerically, with Session 3 released after Session 9, Session 8 and so on. I bought Session 9 and Session 6, the latter lost by my having moved across three cities over two countries.
Session 9 has staple-bound purple paper. A slip of cream coloured card reads: “The Psychical Poetics Collective are writers and artists networked across London, Dublin, Barcelona and Aarhus.”
The zine itself contains blocks of text built from phrases divided as follows:
school hall like a leavers party dinner then a disco // everyone had arrived by family even the first date i had in freshers secondary school teacher // main lights on but tacky disco lights // no music played // everyone leaves and i am escorted // a dark blue room with a table folded out and that teacher i hated sits there expecting me to sit in front of him // a couple of people with scrunched up faces stand around like bouncers // i feel like its the mob scene with robert de niro in american hustle // i feel like i’ve done dealings with the mob
childhood street // i’m running away but everything is in slow motion // i turn my head and my mum’s friend and her daughter we used to care for after her father died are watching me with a startled look on their faces // i try to run faster but can’t
i’m looking out over a landscape like i’m standing on the roof of a house // i can see everyone’s gardens // it is a beautiful spring day // i see a swordfish swim down the pavement towards the bushes // i think if i think hard enough i can stop it because it’s a danger to the neighbourhood // i stand there and try to concentrate so hard it gives me a headache // nothing happens // the swordfish vanishes
The only other text, besides the title page, is a colophon:
Session 9 was published on 29th June 2014
by the Psychical Poetics Collective
In terms of material sources, this is where the trail ends. The internet has only gotten more regulated by tech giants integrating AI, stamping out websites I could have found that might have offered leads.
***
July 2022. A reading organised by Bad Betty Press poet Tom Bland. Held at The Sun pub on Drury Lane, London. I attended and met a gentlemen who does not want his identity shared. For reasons to do entirely with alcohol, I don’t remember the conversation that led to me mentioning the PPC. This individual claimed to know them and offered to put me in touch.
It would be generous to call this email exchange an interview. While, for the longest time, I didn’t believe I would really be in touch with the PPC, the answers do hold true for a collective interested in a “psychical poetics”. This exchange is documented below:
What was the beginning of the Psychical Poetics Collective?
BURROUGHS
BRION GYSIN
SUN RA
JACK SPICER
HANNAH WEINER
DODIE BELLAMY
I can see the connections for the most part. Sun Ra, Spicer and Weiner stated they encountered intelligences which informed, if not outright dictated, their creative practices, and Burroughs and Gysin’s interest in the occult is well documented. What was Bellamy’s influence on the PPC?
THE TV SUTRAS
What practices did you use to write your published texts?
AUTOMATIC WRITING DREAM RECALL CUT UPS RITUAL FORMULA PSYCHIC STATES STATES FOLLOWING SUBSTANCE OR ORDEAL INDUCTION PSYCHOGEOGRAPHY RHYTHM ANALYSIS WHAT BECAME KNOWN AS SYNCHROMYSTICISM
I did ask if, instead of denoting numerical order, their pamphlets were mapped to Kabbalah’s tree of life. That is, starting at Yesod (9) and working up to Kether (1). This seemed supported by additional correspondences. For example, Session 9 was printed on purple paper: the colour of Yesod in Western esotericism.
I had also wondered if the publication date, cited in the colophon as 29th June 2014, had significance. On looking at a calendar, this fell on a Sunday and not a Monday as I assumed (i.e. Moon-day, the Moon corresponding to the 9th sefirah). However, I did show this date to a professional astrologer, who permitted me to reproduce this email excerpt:
On the 29th June 2014 waxing Moon was co-present with Jupiter in Cancer. The sign’s domicile ruler and exaltation lord. It would have been possible to cast a Pisces-rising chart when the moon was one degree away from an exact conjunction with Jupiter. This would have made Cancer a succedent house. This isn’t perfect but it does make Cancer the 5th house, which I would totally use if I wanted an electional chart (5th house the house of creativity). This is important because if this publication has lunar themes, the Moon is in her domicile and supported by the greater benefic. I would chose this over just publishing on a Monday!
Kabbalistic correspondences are attested to in other publications. Session 8, which I have never purchased or read but seen online - eBay had a copy! - would have corresponded to the eighth sefirah, attributed to Hod (orange/Mercury). Furthermore the second PPC publication I owned, Session 6, was printed on yellow paper. Six/yellow would correspond to Tiferet.
On questioning the Kabbalistic and astrological associations with my contact, the email correspondence was frozen and, therefore, so was this study.
The one staple bound pamphlet in my possession is the only material evidence I have of the PPC. I experienced annoyance at myself for not documenting as fervently as I should have. As the years have passed, my memories and anecdotes have become as real as their writings.
I am left wondering if this was the point of the PPC: to exist in a purely psychic state.
Reference
See also Malcolm Gaskill. Hellish Nell: Last of Britain's Witches (Fourth Estate, 2001). Further details at: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24432058
Richard Capener is the author of numerous chapbooks, including The Topiary (C22 Open Editions), The Enochian Alphabet (Timglaset Editions), KL7 (Red Ceilings Press), Dance! The Statue has Fallen! Now His Head is Beneath Our Feet! (Broken Sleep Books) and, in collaboration with Imogen Reid, Today is a Thursday (Overground Underground). His writing has appeared in journals across the UK, Ireland, America and Canada. He edits Hem Press and its sound poetry imprint Angry Starlings. He also recently edited the anthology What We Did During the Apocalypse, an archive of The Babel Tower Notice Board which he ran from August 2020 to December 2021. He blogs, on occasion, through his Substack, The Emergency Kisses, and hosts the equally occasional Morgiana Podcast.