by Alexander Walls Change: our somehow, sometime, supine constant. A force as old and great as time itself, A force to turn our worn out world, a force Which can ne’er be avoided, nor need be. For though we strive to conserve what matters, Change itself cares not what’s left in tatters. The tree which […]
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by Aidan Chivers As I awake in strange and foreign bed And on my face French sunlight gently falls, I look for my own room around my head But find myself between uncertain walls. My eyes, in earnest, dart around and seek With puzzlement a trace of something known – They chance upon some words […]
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by Tom Saer Now I’m ready to remember All those times in which we thought We’d never see the light of day My brothers, wrong we were to feel That we’d forgotten what she taught Now don’t be shy Do we know how best to reel the fish in From the northern sky? In the […]
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Poetry and Photography by Christopher Hill I wonder about the tree in third quad. I wonder how many students have seen it grow. How many fresh-from-school students. How many just-back-from-Chequers students. How many off-to-first-lecture students. How many starting-to-miss-home students. How many new-term-new-me students. How many just-five-more-minutes students. How many rushing-off-to-lecture students. How many swatting-for-next-collections students. […]
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by Tom Davy I sit with a bear on a sofa. He tells me of his troubles; The drunkards who stormed in at night Just some months ago: asking for toast, Sipping at tea. ‘None for me, of course’, Or so I’d imagine he’d say In his supine, wordless way. In truth, I was one […]
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by Alexander Walls The year is at an end and we must ask: What has been done, achieved, maintained, or lost. To answer this could be an easy task – These things have been achieved, but at what cost? Astounded by developments I stand; I have witnessed such certain selfishness Yet also acts of great […]
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by Aidan Chivers As I wait for my train I watch thoughts and strangers roam In two centuries of litter where I stop and bathe my mind; I trace the seats, the tracks, the stars, to see, or maybe find A moment for myself in this place they’ve all called home. I step across […]
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by Jennifer Potter Clutching at cold tea, Recalling regurgitated emotion. A toast to our former selves, Sipping to transfer sentiment, Ease past pain. Each taste transporting to a coffee shop Artificially lit: maroon and sawdust and stilted conversation With a cup cradled in my hands like a shield, Anticipating effort echoing in emptiness. Every swallow […]
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by Tom Davy “There’ll be hell toupee” We joked eight months ago in May While remarking on the putrid tan That could orange the seven seas. And we were laughing to the end, Drinking and laughing, watching A map become increasingly red in the face. “It’s alright, we only need Florida” With another […]
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by Aidan Chivers The cracked pots of consonants lie strewn across the ground, And quiver with the rattle of feeble cliché – Whimpering, they give out a creaky, plaintive sound Battered by tiny tongues forcing their decay. Colourless vowels fade, hollowed out through overuse: An impotent oblivion of musty, mouldy scents. Antique tapestries unravel; […]
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by Tom Davy The audience departs. A discerning moon watches them, Watch-checking coated herds Emerge into the street, phones out Like fireflies as they flutter about. There’s a dusk around all of them, Its tusks tucking night’s handiwork Swiftly over chimneys. One of three Compliments the lead, another agrees, The third sneezes abruptly to the […]
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by Anna Wawrzonkowska serenity in the city of spires, choirs and fires is serenity at the side of the river cold springtide shiver is serenity in the candlelit burning waiting and yearning is serenity where the grief is expected and truth rejected is serenity serenity serenity wordless playwright in mirrors fashioning heroes is serenity where […]
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by Lizzie Searle Every day I sport a cloak, A cloak I wear but do not own. I fashioned it from want and smoke And it clothes each frail bone. And with that cloak of smoke and blight, I wear a heart pinned to my cuff. Only to remove at night That sad and desperate […]
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by Miriam Stegmann The gravity of an ending In the fleeing dark Anthracite clouds of breath Hanging low Over the curve of your heavy skull Your globe, world of worlds Allegory of bones, blood, brain Your thoughts A black box Weighing me down. In foreboding shadows you rest Below my collar bone Pressing onto my […]
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by Lizzie Searle Dear Jack, Darling I miss you. It hurts this far away. It’s pleasurable. I know you miss me so much more than I miss you. You’re needy and pathetic and rich. I love you. I love the nights we sing together, huddled on the same piano stool or better still when I […]
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by Alexander Walls Such a phrase, of course, we may not oft hear, Yet what is Eden? What is paradise? We idolise an Arcadian past; We long for a Utopian future. How will any of these dreams come to pass? We must refocus. Clouds block out the light Bringing gloom and dusk. Clouding our vision […]
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by Jenny Potter Smudges of neon watercolour stain The powder blue of the heavens. Towering stems slash at bare shins, Marking pink, criss-crossed fire Across epidermal brickwork. Fields dusted with poisoned petals Glow yellow in the waning sun. Rich greenery shrouds footed clay Leading through lush summer growth To trees of suitability: tall, spindly, straight […]
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by Rebecca Slater All the blues I’ve ever known add up to this – this single perfect blue which is really a thousand blues, bottled up like the beachedblue glass on my mother’s mantelpiece, my father’s bluebuttoned shirt stained from Sunday afternoons painting my brother’s blue-walled bedroom – a boyish bias, ever since that blue […]
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by Tom Davy The ceiling splays a fresco for the crowds. The round Sheldonian, Truth lies on high And falls like words of Latin from the clouds Whose black betrays the turquoise of their sky. Time is not ours. So every stroke of brush That paints the ring paints every second too; We find ourselves […]
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by Lizzie Searle I am talking. Silently. I tap the little places on the screen with my thumbs. You’re there when I type, listening in my head. I have finished talking and look into your invisible face. You don’t say anything. You disappear from where you weren’t. I look back at my talking. Childish words […]
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by Lucy Mellor “Is the sky blue?” Said sarcastically – Analogous to “Is the Pope Catholic?” As though the Pope Changes his faith With sunrise And sunset. A mutiny of colours Largely unobserved Hang wistfully Waiting for acceptance Until time’s end – Rendering ordinary Each blue sky And white cloud. It’s getting colder […]
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by Callista McLaughlin
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by Tom Davy To the first term’s autumnal fog. Tears tumble off marooned cheeks That peek into new rooms, new curtains, Parted like families. Then there’s the names that fizz Like molecules around the hall, A mahogany pit of reaction After reaction After reaction. We’re all playing potters, Clay bridges between ourselves Form like the […]
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by Emma Gilpin Light Everything about you was light And I felt relief As you reached through the night Your smile so easy Your spirit so blithe You carried me to heaven As my paperweight body Turned suddenly, Joyously light
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by Callista McLaughlin
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by Chloe Cheung fingertips warm lips— parting is such sweet—sorrow i say (dreams really do come true) icecold river dissolves past/present/future take me back now; rewind three years: tick, tock, tick, tock, tick … it’s not ‘goodbye’ my dear, but a promise that we’ll meet again—
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by Jenny Potter
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by Alex Waygood ‘Twas in the early hours of Monday morn That in the libr’y, one could plainly see A boy: who, with hunch’d back and bended neck, Didst type away on music theory. The clock struck three, then four, then five! The college soundly snored – Yet still the lad did keenly strive […]
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A Shakespearian Sonnet Translation by Jade Tinslay J.V In bygone days thy love I held alone and thought it ever would to me belong. I spurned thy company and will atone thy face I could not count in beauty’s throng. Alas, another sought thee at first sight, ’tis past the hour for me to gaze […]
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The Poor Print 