by Michael Angerer It seems that the most desirable thing to achieve in life is harmony – that is, at least according to many religions and a sizeable number of personal coaches. Your life is supposed to run along like a well-crafted symphony: all dissonances are to be resolved at the end. That is also […]
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by Rhiannon Savage
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A pdf of the print version of Issue #27 – Dissonance – can be downloaded here: Issue #27 – Dissonance
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An original composition for piano, by Chris Hill. Download the score here
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by Tobias Thornes It was nearing summer in the Northern Hemisphere when my boat at long last docked, but somewhere along the way we had slipped imperceptibly into the South, and – for now at least – winter was setting in around me for the second time in six months. I didn’t know it then, […]
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by Amanda Higgin Xanda and I, reluctantly and rushed by timetables, exchange our goodbyes a few times in between final parting witticisms. I really do have to go!’ She laughs, ‘Bye!’, and with a click of her mouse and a low bee-doop Xanda disappears from my laptop screen. I lean back in my chair, still chuckling […]
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by Josh Cottell I sit down at the piano and play two chords. It’s a C7(♭9) leading to a F▵(add9). Damn! That’s crunchy. Hearing these chords would make many think immediately of jazz. But why? What is it about these chords that makes us think of jazz? The answer to this question is in the essence […]
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by Joe Gardiner
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by Amanda Higgin It is often said that simple things are beautiful, and this show was certainly a Beautiful Thing. This straightforward but delicately told story brings its audience to three neighbouring flats in a London council estate. Jamie lives with his mother, Sandra, and her boyfriend, Tony. On one side lives Leah, who has […]
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by Teofil Camarasu Oriel’s Governing Body voted on Wednesday to fly the rainbow flag in February from 2018 onwards – except days when the college flag takes precedence. February marks LGBT History Month in the UK, an annual event that aims to raise awareness around discrimination against the community and interrogate heteronormative attitudes in society. […]
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by Michael Angerer To us, narrow-minded land-dwellers that we are, the sea has for millennia been the great unknown, the Other, a fear to be overcome. Even now, in the age of submarines and recreational scuba-diving, it has managed to remain enigmatic: it is one of those so-called interesting facts that less than five percent […]
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by Amanda Higgin Xanda and I sit at a coffee shop window overlooking Cornmarket, exchanging forecasts for the term ahead as we warm our hands around drinks. Xanda is drinking green tea; I’m in dire straights with my collections revision, so I’m on coffee. I’ve been complaining about the need to make life choices, although […]
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A pdf of the print version of Issue #26 – Wave – can be downloaded here: Issue #26 – Wave
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by Joe Gardiner
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by Michael Leong hey! what are you doing begone, the night should not gather here disperse your images of me clutching you tightly, arm wrapped like saran around your waist, warmth […]
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by Shirley Russell I suppose it should come as no surprise that I’ve fallen completely in love with you. After all, this is a return and not an introduction. I’ve seen you before; I’ve seen your spires and your streets and your narrow little lanes and cosy coffee shops. I’ve been in your libraries and […]
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by Fanxi Liu THE DIFFICULTY OF DISENTANGLEMENT Girl holding your hand. I dreamt of empty dormitories last night very quietly, Henan summer blowing in through the open door. There was a drought that year, three reservoirs drawn dry, despite which the evening air was sharp enough to cut my thoughts in half: upturned faces touched […]
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by Tom Saer I have apparitions of a pillowcase Stuffed with lion feathers I have fifty pence from grandpa To buy slow motion food On the vibrating bus seat by the bus stop I have pins and needles in my face Dripping with autotune I have a citadel of hair and glasses Made from […]
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by Aaron Cawood Marriana. The skyline horizon break between ocean, sky and shore. The smell of parchment and kindled fires and muddy boots. Water on a wooden boat. Bridges across a stagnant moat. Brass hooks along a winter coat. Calligraphy of a tattoo quote. The perfume smell of a love note. An argument, an outvote. […]
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by Tobias Thornes How curious it is, my friends, that my memories should remain so vivid of the far distant journeys that I made so many decades ago. I have now recalled to you that first happy adventure I had, in the long-ago summer of 2017, which so piqued my yearning for exploration and magnified […]
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by Sophia Smout You left in a grey morning. It’s funny, now, The bits that I remember so precisely: How the faint clouds brushed together In the damp, smoky air; And how the sun hung, palely hovering, Against the granite sky. You left in a threat of storm clouds And hail, in rain and thunder, […]
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An original composition for piano, by Chris Hill. Download the score here
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A selection of some of 2017’s most popular articles on our website. Featured image by Max Clements – see more snowy pictures of Oxford here. Fantastic Trumps – and Where to Find Them: On Fantasy Tropes & Political Narrative Alex Waygood ‘Dwindling’ Tom Saer The Saturday Ritual Michael Leong What’s New About Fake […]
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Clickbait Investigative journalism by Alex Waygood. Featured image by Out Of The Blue. Out Of The Blue’s recent Christmas single, ‘Merry Xmas Everybody’, is as fun, frivolous and festive as ever. And yet, watching it, I couldn’t help feel as though there were something missing. Namely: where did the gay go? Out Of The Blue’s music videos […]
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Photos selected and edited by Alex Waygood
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by Max Clements As our eyes touch, my mind elapses. Your intimate complexion is pallid, your radiance extinguished. Your expression is lifeless. Your hands are frigid, your fingers callous. You possessed me. Your departed vitality lay dormant within me; and yet it drained mine. I devoured your beauty; I touched and tasted yet attained no […]
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A pdf of the print version of Issue #25 – Resolution – can be downloaded here: Issue #25 – Resolution
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by Tom Saer Resurface from your lampshade Watching in dislocation Threshold of earth Plastic tears of a shaman Welded onto my accomplice Decoration on our perspex Hope transported The sand in your smile My dusty Neptune Evolve Cough up your skin like a man and Show them you’re made of blood Out of the whirlwind […]
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by Michael Angerer Every ending is an invitation to look forward. As we move through time, the impenetrable murk ahead, like infinite layers of cobwebs, resolves into wispy strands of memory that trail behind us; and with every new layer we brush aside, we hope to get a glimpse of the next. This, ultimately, is […]
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by Angus Forbes STOP. You don’t want this. I said STOP. It’s not worth it. You don’t need to Prove yourself. Every second you Hurt yourself more. You could Stand up. Walk away. They won’t think Less of you. They want to do it Too. Want to STOP. They’re too Scared. You have Other things […]
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by Joe Gardiner
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by Michael Leong It is 3am now. A couple of us had been playing ice hockey; afterwards, JJ and I retired to my room and decided to plan next term’s Oxford Mental Health Support Network launch over a couple of beers. Our conversation returned, as it tends to do, to the people we’re hoping to […]
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by Tobias Thornes The representative of the Vietnamese travel company was most apologetic. ‘We could not get your ticket to Beijing,’ she said. ‘Only to Nanning. You can buy the Beijing ticket in Nanning. We will refund your Beijing ticket.’ So that was that. It was nine o’clock at night; the Nanning train would leave […]
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by Michael Leong I take great joy in my Saturday ritual. Every Saturday morning, I wake up late (hopefully slightly hungover), get a shower, put on my headphones and walk as slowly as I can to Jericho Coffee. I get a takeaway short Latte, and walk, just as slowly, back to my room. If I’m […]
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by Cora MacGregor Each November fresh controversies arise regarding the Remembrance poppy. These ostensibly emerge out of individual cases or concerns particular to the present day: the expectation for public figures to wear a poppy, how to reconcile this with the demands for neutrality, and fears over the potential for slimy politicians to exploit the […]
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by Michael Angerer Our memories are the stories that we tell ourselves: to remember is to scribble in faint pencil across the fabric of our lives. When inspiration strikes – a light across the ceiling, the warmth of a bed, a cup of tea – we conjure up an image of the past that neatly […]
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by Simon Norris Hello old friend, Remember me? You know me not, But all you see of me Is a memory There is no time like […]
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by Tobias Thornes Through the green heart of Thailand we had rushed, where the hills erupt like forested thimbles or rounded dice scattered across the plain: a mesmerising memory of a land where Earth still stores some beleaguered secrets amidst her lofty nooks. The train snipped the undergrowth, charging over little-serviced rails. Yet, sluggish seemed […]
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by Aaron Cawood Lights up. The bench at the train station; we sit. Only, now, in Act Two, I smile, In spite of the crowd – I feed the first line. And because you are there, I smile throughout the Act. As, because you are there, sirens pass in quiet. And, because you are there, […]
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by Simon Norris For your tomorrow We offered up our own. We lay ourselves down Under a torn quilt of poppies Across the rift of war. We let you walk upon our backs To peace. We caught the bullets And shells With our bodies. A wall of resolve And flesh and blood. The poppies […]
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The Poor Print 