by Michael Angerer Political efforts to improve equality or diversity have a tendency to meet with fierce opposition from those who fear sudden changes; it is such fears of seeing the world spin out of control that have fuelled the rise of Donald Trump, Brexiters and European right-wing parties. Their policies have one thing in […]
Read more
by Michael Angerer A kitchen in the west of Ireland, home to two ill-compatible brothers, haunted by the alcoholic parish priest and supplied with booze by an enterprising schoolgirl: such is the scene that unfolds to the audience in the current production of The Lonesome West at the Burton Taylor Studio. The atmosphere of this […]
Read more
by Joel Fraser These couplets clang as cymbals These gongs resound their rhythms We crash in tearful frustration For all of our creation Amounts to no more than this: A lip-locked struggle for air And words. Must we choose? Tongues of men and angels, we can master But I know that they are jars of […]
Read more
Review by Amanda Higgin Photos by Luke Wintour A Romanian, an Irishman, a Russian and an Englishman walk into a public library in 1917 Zurich. What ensues is a beautifully crafted work, skilfully derived from complex and challenging source material. The design is fascinating, the performances are superb, but most of all my respect must […]
Read more
by Joe Gardiner
Read more
by Amanda Higgin As I come into the chapel, I click open the hidden panel in the woodwork above the hymnals and flip on the lights. In this weather it’s more of a habit than a need; the summer sun already illuminates the checkerboard floor tiles, the familiar wooden pews and the soaring space above. […]
Read more
by Tobias Thornes I could not know, as I scrambled through the suburbs and savannah of Kenya and Ethiopia while May slipped into June of 2019, that my long Slow Travel – over a year by then in duration – was so soon, so hurriedly, to come to a close. Since that sunny spring day […]
Read more
A pdf of the print version of Issue #28 – Charge – can be downloaded here: Issue #28 – Charge
Read more
by Tom Saer Breathing binary air loss In a separate dream about top surgery I guess rhetoric wins in the end Maybe the water’s taking a bank holiday And your side is pierced With one collective neck and my hands around it Or maybe that was the other guy Rhythmic tarmac accompanied by the band’s […]
Read more
by Fanxi Liu
Read moreby Sophy Oliver I enter on a whim So quiet and so still Deafening with judgement To be accepted by Him Here I sit and I wait In this unknown called peace Yet still feeling a fraud To be accepted by Him I do not know how long Minutes, hours or days One has to […]
Read more
by Michael Angerer In recent political discourse, it has become commonplace to emphasise shared values whenever the more difficult questions regarding national identity and social cohesion are raised; for example, in continental Europe, the phrase ‘Christian values’ is almost bound to fall in the context of immigration from Islamic countries. Broadly speaking, there tend to […]
Read more
by Tobias Thornes Cecil Rhodes once dreamed of a railway that would run right up the length of Africa, from Cape Town to Cairo through a long line of conjoined British colonies. One by one, most of the necessary tribes and kingdoms of ancient Africa had fallen into Britain’s grip by the end of the […]
Read more
by Tom Saer Do I forgive you for your animals in a fury of cigarette pavements? Neptune’s lieutenant rarely if ever evident acted out of nothing but a carbon paroxysm Give me a pen pot prophecy about some lighter worry something along the lines of the lines of the the sugar made me forget what […]
Read more
by Michael Angerer The City of Oxford has a sad reputation for its particularly high number of homeless people; according to city council data, 61 rough sleepers were recorded in 2017, up from 33 in 2016. At the beginning of February this year, the city council had to activate its Severe Weather Emergency Protocol in […]
Read more
by Chloe Jacobs In an alcove before the Rad Cam, there has been a shipwreck. Some small vessel has run aground on the cobblestones and left the debris of life behind, floating on thin waves of pure foam. Or, perhaps, these are the remains of an ancient civilisation. Great Pyramids have spilled onto English pavements, […]
Read more
By Soo Yi Yun ‘Alf’ (which stands for Alien Life Form), as he was fondly known to his colleagues and students, enjoys reading, singing and watercolour painting. His wealth of knowledge about the quirkiest things has enlightened people around him, and his resilient compassion has illuminated some of our students’ weary nights. His last day […]
Read more
Poignant, dark, and fun – Ishtar is proof that age does not matter, and that some stories are timeless. Bringing to life of one of the oldest poems in the world from Ancient Mesopotamia, Ishtar tells the story of the eponymous Goddess of Love and War (Leela Jadhav) as she ventures into the underworld to […]
Read more
by Chloe Whitehead ‘Let the Bride awake!’ Intrigue and betrayal reigns in this adaptation of Federico García Lorca’s 1930s classic, Blood Wedding. The Burton Taylor Studio provides an intimate and compelling venue for the drama, with only two rows of seats before the scandal-riven world of rural Spain encroaches upon the audience. Despite only watching […]
Read more
Review by Amanda Higgin Photos by Georgia Crowther Oriel’s College’s own Poor Print had the first set of eyes on this much-anticipated Playhouse production in dress rehearsal. Even without making allowances for the adjustments and polishing that will take place before opening night, Hedda was excellent. A carefully curated, visually stunning, compelling masterwork – it […]
Read more
by Tobias Thornes It was with some regret that I set out again to sea, and left the magical island and its comforting solidarity in exchange for days and nights sliding across the empty waves. This time, though, my journey was to be much shorter than before, and it wasn’t long I had to wait […]
Read more
by Joe Gardiner
Read more
by Michael Angerer Our life in a modern state is made comfortable by our trust in the power of its institutions: we know that administrative difficulties are not our problem, but that of the civil service; the presence of the police makes it so much less likely that we will have to defend ourselves against […]
Read more
by Rhiannon Savage
Read more
by Chloe Jacobs 1. We work in silent tandem as I, A spray of warm citrus, work open skin and you Lick sugared History from your spoon 2. “I mean, is it worth it?” As I work life back into my hands, you, the sheen of rain on a cheekbone, nod towards them, long limb […]
Read more
by James Page Crofton’s Seat was built upon an ancient rock overlooking the fields below. The single wide tower was surrounded by a low wall into which a great pair of iron gates was set as a mouth. It seemed as old as the land itself, and as likely to be abandoned as sheltering a […]
Read more
by Cora MacGregor He who once, child-like, wept, seeing needless Death, now, clad in bronze, attacks a fourth time. Ablaze with another’s glory, heedless, Like something inhuman, like something divine. In costume, playing once the hero, but already The god. And dormant ambition is freed: Instinctive, his spear in his hand steady, As he […]
Read more
by Fanxi Liu DREAM THE FIRST There’s a man in your soap bubbles, you notice on Wednesday. You almost swirl him down the drain with the rest of your day, but snatch the suds out in the nick of time. Indigo-gold-dogwood membrane films his features; nonetheless, you get the distinct impression that he’s addressing the […]
Read more
by Michael Leong I wrote you a poem – It was a twin fangled star’s crossing the park end of the universe It was a covert signal, a beep beep beeeeep fax machine beaming quiet whispers to desert islands Where jawas, marooned in silver storms would ponder our deepest secrets Huddled around broken words they […]
Read more
It is clear what the theme of this issue is trying to push with its electric blue lettering and call for, and here I quote, ‘electrifying submissions’, so, with my hand forced, I gleefully put pen to paper. It is with a jolt of inspiration that my mind turns to sources of power, then wanders […]
Read moreBy Soo Yi Yun Shelley Billington, Oriel’s first female night porter, supports feminism and enjoys her relationships forged in the college. Her last day as the night porter at Oriel was 16 February 2018. I started working at Oriel in July 2016. I was looking for a job with different challenges, so I decided to […]
Read more
by Tom Saer Any grip I had as a child On the warrior’s earpiece Amassed a certain sympathy with Freudian audio and the plaintive Cry of a caterpillar The other cups Made out of moral tortoise shells Say nothing about the grief of the immortals Or the baby dragon in her eye Or the formula […]
Read more
by Alexander Walls The night is dark. The rain – it lashes down, Its persistent pattering, dolorous To my ears. The dull, sombre sky has drained. Hearing the downhearted drops of the rain, I think of such boundless, untold concepts. But, like the rain, I find myself discharged, Resigned to the asseveration from Above. Now […]
Read more
by Emma Gilpin “Expectation vs. Reality” is a classic meme, one that has achieved its success through the relatability of its wry analysis of the sometimes seemingly unrelenting disappointments of modern life. The internet is a strange, ethereal space where we are able to connect with people who have similar, or wildly different, interests and […]
Read more
by Michael Leong I’ve been meditating again recently; 10 minutes a day is a relatively low cost for a sense of having dedicated time and space to take care of myself. One exercise I’ve always struggled with is visualisation – imagining a ball of light at the top of your head, sending warm, spacious sunlight […]
Read more
The rhythmic hum of the washing machine reminds me that not all metronomes are perfect and that water smells like flowers sometimes and that sometimes it smells like mud and that you are still in the room. You sent me teardrops in damp envelopes and poems you didn’t write. And I realised your voice doesn’t […]
Read more
by James Page Beyond the tumbling hills, the great storm brewed on the horizon. Katherine found it mesmerising: its devastating vastness, the way it twisted and changed from moment to moment, the flickering light from within it flashing and fading. There was something strangely calming about its intricacies, despite the inevitable destruction it contained. She […]
Read more
by Lauren Hill Dissonance pervades our world. Tensions and conflict can tear apart the perceived stability of our lives, shifting harmony and order into a harsh cacophony of sound. In relation to psychology, cognitive dissonance can be explained as the inner mental conflict which results from simultaneously holding contradictory and incongruous beliefs; in order to […]
Read more
by Chloe Whitehead Five English students, a medic and some wholesome Shakespeare – a day out made in heaven? We thought so. On a rainy Thursday in January we went to see Twelfth Night at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon, and on the whole witnessed a brilliant performance. Despite being an English student, I’d […]
Read more
by Tom Saer Please, my deer, sell your tiger’s hides and Harvest my empathy I promise it’s worth it? In an anxious Greek murmur of the brazen-clad I found your stone antlers Weeping words from a cherry tree In a fucking dance I will grind you into a paste I’ve met you before synthesised waltz […]
Read more
The Poor Print 