Will Tant, 1st year MPhil in Theology, comes to Oriel after a career in pro-surfing and as a professional model | Interviewed by Jacob Warn | Photo by Seth Stafford Surf’s Up Will’s surfing career began in Florida, where he would surf with his brother. By his sophomore year in high school, Will had made […]
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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 Lucy Mellor It was new and I was awakening Springing into life Vines of ivy intertwined The sun adored us And we basked in its glory; It won’t set on us. Defiance of nature The chill sets in I curl into myself Time for things to die Distance is a poison and I […]
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by Jo Flynn Eating enough of the right foods can be difficult, especially during times of stress. We’re all quick to guzzle orange juice when we feel a cold coming on, but what can we eat to help mental health and mood? Deficiencies in certain vitamins and minerals have been found to be associated with […]
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by Charlie Willis They had a tiger at the circus. And when she wasn’t on stage inside the big red and yellow tent, she lay in a foul-smelling cage by the edge of the field, panting. The girl didn’t believe in tigers. A black and orange cat as big as a horse? It was absurd. […]
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by Tobias Thornes In the midst of the unimaginably vast, empty expanse that is the surface of the Pacific Ocean – the thin, glittering film across which we have slid for nearly a month – the first, precious sighting of land feels like the fulfilment of one’s every hope and dream. For days I have […]
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by Jenny Potter Awaken me on Sunday morning Chiming for an hour or two And once you pause, I think you’re waning, You begin to toll anew. What’s the time? Who knows? Who cares? The occasion? We need none. Each time you catch me unawares And torment me until you’re done. You’re hungover? What […]
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by Luke Sheridan I said goodbye to a friend today. A mirror. A rainforest well of the same unknown depth. A crystal cave undrained by men with ropes and suits. Unvisited by the thousand eyes Devouring the monthly publications Extolling the great wonder of the hidden Deep, displaying in photographs ‘untouched’ nature with a Proud […]
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A few weeks ago, BBC Foreign Correspondent John Simpson give the Ascension Day sermon in Oriel Chapel. The Poor Print’s political correspondent, William McDonald, caught up with Mr Simpson before the service. Comfortably ensconced in an armchair, John Simpson looks rather like most other septuagenarians. But his kind smile and rugged features disguise a steely […]
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A pdf of the print version of Issue #12 – Goodbye – can be downloaded here: Issue #12 Goodbye
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by Lucy Mellor Unimaginable complexity; the norm in a society consumed by technology most of us don’t understand. Taken most for granted though, is the human form; familiar as anything, and yet no-one has quite figured us out. Criticism of the self comes far too easily, but we are all a microcosm of the universe […]
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by Jenny Potter
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by Tobias Thornes I’m going in search of an island. It’s no ordinary island. You won’t find it on any map; it can’t be seen from space. Yet it’s the size of Texas. The only way to reach it is by sea, but you won’t see it coming. You’ll only know you’ve reached it when […]
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by John Webb I have to say that this is an abridged article as I have sold the full story to the Oxford Mail (World Edition) which will appear shortly under the banner headline ‘I Beat Hernia’. It is based loosely on a two thousand year-old tale about medical matters by that renowned Roman scholar […]
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by Jacob Warn On St. George’s Day at Oriel College, Oxford, it is customary to feast on Roast Goose – fat Isaic Bird! Indignant, I beat off the carnally-laden arms of our servers. Give me something blander, my appetite and I demand. My appetite, four years after forsaking the excess of Animal Meats is blanched, […]
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A pdf of the print version of Issue #11 – Rubbish – can be downloaded here: Issue #11 – Rubbish
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by Zixin Jiang ‘Jesus never invited anyone to a “lunchtime talk”,’ said a comedian on an Oriel comedy night last year. She was referring to the weekly talks organized by the Christian Union (CU), of which I am a part, on various questions about Christianity. You get a free sandwich lunch, a cookie, a piece […]
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by Jenny Potter On entering a hospital, one can be asked to describe pain on a scale from one to ten, a comparative measure based on all pain you can remember feeling. In this system a ten is a ten, an unfamiliar yet equally valid ten when compared to any other. Through our limited awareness, […]
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by Giorgio Scherrer Marjory Szurko, Oriel’s librarian, likes books, people and Medieval English recipes I’ve been at Oriel for fourteen years now, longer than most staff members. But sometimes, I still discover things about the library that I didn’t know before. That’s always wonderful. And in a library like this there are so many things […]
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by Luke Sherridan Staring at the sculpted rock before us, no larger than my hand, I offered an answer: ‘It’s a woman’. We had been asked for our first impressions on this ancient object. ‘And why do you say that?’, asked our guide Dr. Mallica Kumbera Landrus, quickly and excitedly, and with a curiosity which […]
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by Kat Wood She wasn’t born to be a saint, But modelled to a mind’s ideal And, with celestial restraint, Held hostage by ill-founded zeal. The two had met a single time But in his memory each day Her image changed to one sublime, Venus incarnate, he would say. And so the girl became a […]
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by Tobias Thornes Somewhere beneath the steel spires of China’s biggest city lie buried the remnants of a tiny village of ages past. Somewhere – overridden by congested roads and railways, over-trodden by millions of traipsing feet – lie the bones of countless generations now forgotten. It seems ironic that even in a city where […]
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by Tacita McCoy-Parkhill
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by Charlie Willis Self-confidence Nothing you have done wraps its chains around your ankles and drags you away from a sunset streaked with gold, and nothing you have done takes you by the hand and leads you along a lucky path to freedom. For we are all picking things up and trying things out, and […]
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A pdf of the print version of Issue #10 – Judgement – can be downloaded here: Issue #10 – Judgement
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by Aidan Chivers Some of the most charming moments of big family events are the retelling of old, familiar and utterly worn-out stories of past times. Told with delightful precision – and often, it is vaguely suspected, highly fabricated plot details – these family favourites resurface year after year, with no innovation or variation in […]
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by Sophie Barnes The Poor Print’s definitive Coffee Map of Oxford is downloadable here!
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by Emma Gilpin It was a secret that we all had and we kept it, ashamed, embarrassed, scared about what it all meant. I suppose that’s because it meant adulthood, but it also meant something much more intimidating than that: womanhood. I got my period when I was twelve. I didn’t, couldn’t, tell anyone about […]
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by Christy Callaway-Gale The beginning and end of everyone’s year abroad (yes, I am about to generalise, which in Oxford’s terms is the bait for your tutor to rip your essay into unbelievably miniature shreds) can be summed up by the question, how are you feeling about leaving? Surprisingly, I think both my answers, although […]
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by Tobias Thornes A wide and enticing country brews, always, just beyond our western comprehension, like a cauldron of constant change the taste of whose broth we never can be sure. Such is the allure of tantalising China: a rich civilisation veiled behind a mist of mystery. And I, like so many awe-stricken adventurers, am […]
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by Alec Siantonas In what we now call the Ancient Near East, beards were a sign of dignity. Beards adorned the virile and the vigorous, the warrior and father of warriors. I myself have small desire to sire warriors, but I sympathise with the viewpoint. I delight in my hair, in all its luxuriant abundance. […]
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A pdf of the print edition of Issue #9 – Cycles – can be downloaded here: Issue #9 – Cycles
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The Poor Print is recruiting a Managing Editor to take over the publication’s weekly operations for Trinity. This is an exciting opportunity to work with the outgoing team, with the expectation of taking on the Editor-in-Chief position in the following academic year. More details can be found here: Managing Editor Application Typical work-flow information is […]
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by Aidan Chivers After the dizzying blur of my first Oxford term, it was a strange feeling to find myself back, walking our dog, retracing the same route which had become a familiar after-school routine throughout my school days. After eighteen years in the same place, no tree, lamp-post or speck of moss on the […]
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by Madeline Briggs My high school had this motto – it was on a plaque in every classroom, repeated at chapel and assembly, hanging on banners around campus: ‘Wisdom more than Knowledge, Service beyond Self, Honour Above Everything’. I doubt many of my classmates spend a lot of time thinking about it today. Most stuff […]
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by George Prew How do we put together the history, society and beliefs of a civilisation from which we have no (or very few) written records? Such is the case with the Etruscans (the Italians before the Italians moved to Italy) and the Mycenaeans (the Greeks before the Greeks moved to Greece). After all, what […]
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by Tobias Thornes ‘Surely, this is Hell indeed. Except that these pour souls suffer not for their own but for someone else’s sins.’ The Monsoon breaks like a sudden breath of sweet, fresh air after a long asphyxiation. Across the dry, sun-seared northern states of India reverberates a wave of joyful exhilaration: the long-awaited water […]
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by Fergus Higgins ‘You see, it wasn’t the ordinary sort of Doubt about Cain’s wife or the Old Testament miracles or the consecration of Archbishop Parker. I’d been taught how to explain all those while I was at college. No, it was something deeper than all that. I couldn’t understand why God had made the […]
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The Poor Print 