The Poor Print

Nineteen Eighty-Nine

by Anonymous Victoria Park: on this site, in 2022, nothing happened. For thirty years, people had gathered at the park in Hong Kong in remembrance of those who died on 4 June 1989, at the hands of a regime that sent its military on its own people. Hong Kong had been the only city in […]

College, Humour, Prose

Operation Quackers

by The Yellow Feathers This is a transcription of an intercepted meeting of the 696th Airborne, the ‘Yellow Feathers’. Triangulation of signals places the location somewhere in the Hall rafters. Little is known about the covert division, although the code names of the commanders have been declassified for public release. The latest intelligence suggests that […]

Comic

Future

by Noah S. Adhikari I wish I could go into the future. That would be amazing. I could see when I get my black belt in karate. But the real thing is that someone has said that they have already been in the future and said that I will never get my black belt! Noah […]

Poetry

We’ll Have a Love Like

by Siddiq Islam we’ll have a love likeslow indie moviestwo stubborn youths withno cares or duties we’llkiss on the street andlaugh on the bus they’llnot say a word they’llnot bother us we’llsteal mother’s blankets gobeneath them in the library we’llpretend we’re working hard but we’re justgiggling under quietlyyou’ll bake me bowls of pasta andi’ll write […]

Poetry

Hereafter

by Joe Lever When Keats had fears that he may cease to be,Alone to night he turned, to shore in thoughtThose thoughts against the nothingness – and heResolved to unhand all he wrote and wrought. Still, he lives on; and now I take his placeIn thinking, fearing, knowing that my beingHere is but an accident […]

Comment, Prose

Musings on the Merging of Presents and Futures

by Ada Sevimli I learnt so much about the world around me, primarily that I know so little about it. In classes, seminars, and during revision, I filled a small but precious pool of knowledge and relished in its beauty. Took pride in the fact that it glistened like the foreheads of those who labour […]

Print issues

Issue #80 – Future

A PDF of the print version of Issue #80 – Future – can be downloaded here.

Poetry

British Summer Sunshine

by Monim Wains Finally! My window was bright!My room was filled with glowing light! After months of grey and cloudiness wet,A t-shirt and shorts were a decent bet. So out I came smiling with glee,Everyone blinking and squinting to see. I saw that tourists had filled up the townAnd the river had punts all the […]

Poetry

People Have Always

by Siddiq Islam People have always sun-swum in the summer,And bathed in broad buttercups under blue skies.People have always been meadow-grass thumbers,And combed with fresh fingers the fields where they lie. Oh, let me go back to those mild, milky meadows,Where life flows with ease, undisrupted and mellow.I’d stretch like a starfish, alone there for […]

Artwork, Cartoon

A Summer of Finals

by Monim Wains

Artwork, Cartoon, Poetry

Awful Summer

by Noah S. Adhikari Summer is the best … … but!Have you ever thought that summer could be the worst? Meet Jack. He has had the worst summer ever. Here is why: When it was summer, Jack was playing with the water.He caught a cold, and that made him cross. So that’s why he has […]

Print issues

Issue #79 – Summer

A PDF of the print version of Issue #79 – Summer – can be downloaded here.

Humour, Prose

Dear Beary… [15]

by Beary McBearface Beary McBearface, treasured Oriel mascot and JCR staple, is here to help you with your troubles. In this column, Beary will attempt to find solutions to your little college worries; trust him, he’s seen it all. To contact him, all you have to do is send an email to thepoorprint@oriel.ox.ac.uk with the […]

Humour, Prose

Dear Beary … [14]

Comment, Prose

A Word from the Editors: Unity

by Jerric Chong Behold, how good and joyful a thing it is: brethren, to dwell together in unity! Psalm 113:1 As I write this, Sam Ryder has just given the UK our best result in twenty years at the Eurovision Song Contest: a goodly 466 points to finish in second place. The victorious act (most […]

Creative Writing, Prose

When We’re United, We’re Unstoppable

by Madeline Dougherty ‘Mages! Fica! We have done it! Only the cowardly Elite leaders remain of the Tenebrum army. Today you have fought hard and we have lost many valuable members. Some of you have sacrificed family members, lovers, friends, children. We appreciate the efforts and pain you have endured today and it will be […]

Creative Writing, Prose

Doctor Circuit: Tales of the Great Laundry Supreme

by Anonymous Another day, another sheet, another essay. Not a scoot or whoot in sight – I ponder as I gaze out of my window. A habit I developed since discovering that there is a slight, minute, tiny but VERY CRUCIAL FACT that it is slightly, possibly possible that your atoms can align in such […]

Artwork

Caffeine

by Ayomikun Bolaji

Artwork, Poetry

The Universe Awake

by Monim Wains Silence.No sound, nor light, nor existence at all.The universe idled, in a trance. It wasn’t still, though, not perfectly so,Growing from the tiniest speck to the size of a room, to size of the sky, and space, and time.It was evolving, and changing, and turning, all the while asleep. Because, for all […]

Print issues

Issue #78 – Unity

A PDF of the print version of Issue #78 – Unity – can be downloaded here.

Creative Writing, Prose

Family Tree

by Monim Wains ‘Altitude, 200 metres … 100 metres … 50 … 20 … brace for landing.’ The constant hum of the jets got louder, fiercer as we got closer to the ground. Four beams of flame bore down on the land as the starship slowed to almost a hover before dropping for the last […]

Print issues

Issue #77 – Memories

A PDF of the print version of Issue #77 – Memories – can be downloaded here.

Poetry

Eve

by Samuel Skuse I remember.Under the dwindling light of that fading dayI watched my mother, from the window of the room I shouldn’t be in.No one stops me now. She loved her garden. Nestled in Eden, the nurse of nature nourished.My heart would fill to a millpondto see her gentle hands with such willing carebring life […]

Poetry

These Are the Things that I Tend to Remember

by Siddiq Islam These are the things that I tend to remember.A soft, supple night with a close, quiet air.A little prince clutched by the light’s final ember.The warm, thick-skinned fingers that comb through his hair.He’s safe from all harm. With her lips she dismissesAll nightmares and vampires with silk forehead kisses,Between which she whispers […]

Artwork, Cartoon

Submit

by Ayomikun Bolaji

Prose

Memories of the Future

by Madeline Dougherty I will always remember the day I got in. The frenzied phone call to my mom; the worry I had misunderstood the email; telling my boss that I would be leaving; my family immediately driving 3 hours to celebrate. I remember everyone telling me this would be a formative year, the best […]

Poetry

She Was the Blossom

by Siddiq Islam She was the blossom.Her pink, silken smile.And her peach-coloured joy.And her soft, petal style. She was the leavesAnd I couldn’t quite catch her.She dropped in the breezeAnd I just stood and watched her. She was the flowersI mushed in the mud.Her sap ran like tears.And she was the buds. And she was […]

Artwork

Spring Season

by Monim Wains

Culture, Music, Prose

Springing Out of a Fourteenth-Century Lockdown

by David Maw In his lengthy debate poem Le Jugement dou Roy de Navarre, the poet–composer Guillaume de Machaut related his experience of the Black Death. Celestial portents, earthquakes, and bad weather heralded its coming. It provoked processions of flagellants, conspiracies about poisoned water and air, and the scapegoating of Jews. Its victims suffered bodily […]

Artwork

Inbound

by Ayomikun Bolaji

Artwork

Cryptic Crossword

by Hamish Dodd ACROSS 1. Flowers left chess mob sorry to be so moved. (6,8) 9. Art Virgos, somehow high above us, wrote The Rite. (4,10) 10. Allusion changed slightly for deep respect. (9) 11. South Africa after uniform of country. (3) 13. Average day of this season to hear horse-like bullock. (6,7) 17. Genuine […]

Print issues

Issue #76 – Spring

A PDF of the print version of Issue #76 – Spring – can be downloaded here.

Humour, Prose

Dear Beary … [13]

by Beary McBearface Beary McBearface, treasured Oriel mascot and JCR staple, is here to help you with your troubles. In this column, Beary will attempt to find solutions to your little college worries; trust him, he’s seen it all. To contact him, all you have to do is emailthepoorprint@oriel.ox.ac.uk with the subject line ‘Dear Beary’. […]

College, Prose

The History of Henna from Across the World

by Nikita Jain

College, Prose

British Sign Language Fact Sheet

by Joe Lever History 1576: First recorded use of a sign language in England (in which marriage vows were signed by Thomas Tillsye) with accounts of deaf people using signs going back even further to the 15th century 1720: Daniel Defoe publishes The History of the Life and Adventures of Mr Duncan Campbell, Deaf and […]

College, Comment, Prose

A Letter to the JCR

by Emily Hudson There is a place for you here. Oxford, and Oriel in particular, carries the weight of hundreds of years of tradition and stereotypes, not all of which are favourable, and not all of which have quite faded with the times. This is the message upon which I originally ran for the role […]

Artwork

Love

by Ayomikun Bolaji

Poetry

To My Secret Admirer

by Hamish Dodd To my secret admirerWhose words have hurt me so,You slandered me in The Poor Print;Your name I do not know. Such callous words from callow lips,Your cowardice is clear,To take to print with acid tongueAnd my good name to smear I hope you’re at the bar tonightBut think it shan’t be so,For […]

Poetry

Promise

by Chloe Jacobs Unsubtle metaphor, An image far from original, And yet I know capitalism has teeth; If the coroner casts the bite marks on my skinThey will match the canines,Molars and incisors of Student Finance, And Tory jaws, And the masticating bones of Jeff BezosAnd his space-bound millionaire friendsBurning notes in denominations I have never seen.Polymer smoke, waterproof plastic […]

Poetry

Scared of Beans

by Siddiq Islam Crouched we areAround sturdy pub woodGloved fingers hugging mugsAnd our laughter steaming up the winter eveningWhen on the ebbing end of a wild winding dialogue of sports and plays and eggs with facesYuv turns to us and tells us he knows how Pythagoras died. The people of Greece angered by the weirdo […]