Culture, Diary, Prose

Lighthouse Hill

by Jiaxi Jesse He In high school, I’d make a pilgrimage to the Dallas Museum of Art every month. On those Saturdays, I rose early, timing the hour-long train ride to arrive just as the museum opens. I’d cut past the Basquiat, Church’s Icebergs, and the infinitely Instagram-able Monets—a line already forming—until I arrived at […]

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Photography, Poetry

Winter Sonnet

by Elisabeth Rees Warm radiance of mutual brilliance,My woollen jumper speaks no tales of fancy.Cup of tea, your eyes on me are chancy.Is the code of Winter youth dalliance?Snow of the earth, limitless before me,Laughing, surfeited on wine drunk spicy,As we, winded, kneel on a shrine icy,And I ask only that you adore me. Glacial […]

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Poetry

Perchance

by Flora Molnar Humour me: can we go back to a time  Where I, as Me, rhyme(s) always with Thee, And Mine has, likewise, only short length to go  To become Thine – t’is possible? Perchance  Only with Art. 

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Humour, Prose

A Whimsical Revenge Plot against Microsoft Authenticator

by Evangeline LaFond If you had given me the choice at the end of Trinity term last year, I would gladly have eaten a whole handful of live wasps in exchange for never again having to go through the pain of Microsoft Authenticator’s two-factor authentication. As of Sunday of 0th week this Michaelmas, however, my […]

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Poetry

Heartstrings

by Mark Have you ever held a guitar?Felt the rounding deft of its bodyNoticed its lacquerNoticed it’s incompleteHave you followed it down the fretsand found undone its tonesunearthed the tone switchconfounded by the tone switchHave you ever visited Ensenada where she was madetried to make one yourself. WellIt’s gritty and difficult and challengingand grittylike welding […]

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Photography, Poetry

A February Afternoon’s Sunbeam

by Taylor Gray Moore You’re breath finally breathed;the soft call of farawaybirds; a hum of whaleslost in brethren contours ofthe sea. You’re free like deer are free;like snow blowing over pavementis free. Unlike how we are free:as wanderers along the freewaybetween one sea and anotherare free. I live along your suggestionof a current:my feet slip […]

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News, Prose

A Freezing Fresher Film

by Hannah Bridgland On Saturday the 22nd of November, we wrapped the short film ‘Freshers’ made with OxfordUniversity Filmmaking Foundation! A script written by a former student was developed bymyself, alongside the director, producer, and my co-cinematographer, starting around 6months ago. The film tells the story of an Oxford student’s freshers’ week, before we join […]

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Diary, Prose

Pictures in My Mind

by Anastasia Brown When I was little, my family had a chunky black digital camera that we took on every trip. My mom was a liberal picture-taker, and we all knew we wouldn’t leave any vacation without at least a few dozen options for the Christmas card. Sometimes, if I spotted something particularly interesting from […]

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Poetry

Trick or Treat?

by Horatio Saunders – Brasenose Chess Club (Board 2) ‘Trick or treat?’ they said,‘Trick’ you replied, so sure that all the same the treatwould be there, left by mum and dad,In the pumpkin,By the porch. ‘School or sleep?’ they said,‘Sleep’ you cried,Because the school calendar kept ticking by for whatseemed like a forever of unremarkable […]

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Poetry

The Mosaic

by Siddiq Islam I A bricklayer pleases his wife by inlayingA pattern of bricks in one wall of her store.The heavenly mural shows bright songbirds playingIn flowery fields by a soft honey shore. The King sees this gardenscape paradisaicAnd covets the beauteous brickwork mosaicSo calls for five thousand strong men to createA queue from the […]

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Humour, Prose

Living with Mathematics

by Siddiq Islam Mathematics is a rare but serious condition that not many know about, and yet, it may be quietly affecting many of your friends at university. It is often caused by a degree in mathematics, and it gives rise to many symptoms, ranging from minor to debilitating. The condition is characterised by a […]

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Culture, Prose

AULT: Reflecting on the Future of Architecture

by David Akanji Welcome to AULT, the arts and culture column of The Poor Print, written by David Akanji (me). AULT exists to refocus our minds, re-engaging ourselves with art and cultural understandings. I’ll be focusing on current opinions/events/issues in the art world, but more importantly how we as students, citizens, and humans fit into […]

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Editorial

A Word from the Editors: Century

by Siddiq Islam Now that one hundred Poor Prints have come and gone, what better a time for us editors to reflect on our time with this wonderful student publication. The Poor Print for me represents not only a physical newspaper, but the courage and talent with which Oriel students share their writing and art […]

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Creative Writing, Prose, Puzzle

Century Puzzle

by Siddiq Islam In wishing The Poor Print a happy one-hundredth issue, I submit a puzzle of unwarranted length (sorry). The aim of the puzzle is to highlight the ambiguity of relationships and the conclusions to which we jump. As you read, check the assumptions you make along the way, remember the information you receive […]

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Prose

A Century of Wave–Particle Duality

by Andrew Boothroyd What makes a good PhD thesis? One hundred years ago, Louis-Victor de Broglie completed a 70-page doctoral thesis in which he proposed that electrons, and by extension all matter, have an associated wave. Within a year or two, de Broglie’s conjecture was to become one of the central ideas of quantum theory, […]

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Comment, Prose

SENECA LVCILIO SVO SALVTEM

by Vittorio P. Cuneo-Flood If I had a hundred mouths and a
hundred tongues, I would not even be able to begin to speak of the evils of take-away coffee. Shall I first say how this habit enslaves man, or how a man is a liar if he practises it? Ah, in the same way that […]

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Humour, Poetry

Nocowley Road

by Siddiq Islam I wander down to Cowley Road
To see where all the cows are stowed,
But when I find no cows are there,
They tell me I should look elsewhere. ‘How rubbishly they named’, I muse,
‘A cow-named road where no cow moos,’
But on I trudge to find the cattle,
My own, determined, bovine battle. I think to […]

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Comment, Prose

The Peculiar World of a Scientist

by Maria Kyriazi Imagine yourself. It’s past 9pm on a
Friday night, and you’re sitting in a room full of microscopes, dim light, almost completely dark, listening to the gurgling noises of the computer and the microscope. The building seems empty, but you know that there are still about ten or fifteen more people hiding behind […]

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Poetry

Between Winter and Spring

by Anonymous That moment – the suspension of breath – as green veins release and begin to wash the grey in gold. The sky arches, still aching with a lingering chill as winter seeps back under the ground and spring thinks of unfurling.

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Poetry

Ephemeral

by Lily Baughman You remain in the skin at my fingertips, neck Stained blue from your hair dye, Skin faded black Like your memory, edges blunted and Vignette When that one hangnail I pluck With my nylon teeth Grows back, it will do so Without knowing you, What it’s like to be Devoured, fissured, into […]

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Culture, Fashion, Prose

AULT: Voyage in Our Vertical Space

by David Akanji Welcome to AULT, the arts and culture column of The Poor Print, written by David Akanji (me). AULT exists to refocus our minds, re-engaging ourselves with art and cultural understandings. I’ll be focusing on current opinions/events/issues in the art world, but more importantly how we as students, citizens, and humans fit into […]

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Playlist

Apologies Playlist

Think of all the times you’ve ever had to apologise – the times you meant it, the times you didn’t.
Do you think your words reached them?
Touched that tiny part of their soul that needed
to hear you say the words ‘I’m sorry’? How much more deeply would your apology resonate
if it was accompanied with a little […]

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Poetry

Reflection on Contemporary Reckoning

by Melita Monemvasioti Waste not your breath in sighs Nor time in guilt Make haste! Anoint daughters with their parents tears Shroud women in their wedding suit And bury mothers in their children’s tomb. You’ve built a palace of sorrow and of gloom Armies of pestilence and doom, and now you cry? Make haste! I […]

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