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 Lucy Mellor Dr Allan Chapman FRAS is a fellow of Wadham College and member of the Oxford University History Faculty, where he specialises in teaching the history of science. He lectures at many institutions across the country, has presented numerous television programmes, and written several popular books. A fascinating man with an unrivalled knowledge […]
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by Tobias Thornes The winter’s freeze was beginning to thaw as I made my way south: into the Heart of Asia. This was the land where Russia and China meet: a large, land-locked expanse surrounded by its powerful neighbours, the mythical heart of an infamous ancient Empire that was the largest contiguous power the world […]
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A pdf of the print version of Issue #21 – ‘Growth’ – can be downloaded here: Issue #21 – Growth
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by Alice Correia Morton Avocados are the hipster ingredient du jour, present at every brunch and scattered over every instagrammed salad. But even if you’d usually steer clear of such fads, avocados still hold their own: they are highly nutritious, with over 20 vitamins and minerals, and a filling centrepiece for vegetarians and vegans. Unfortunately, […]
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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 James Page In the darkness, they fed upon each other. Coiling and writhing in the depths, the spot of sunlight moving down one wall and up the other, grazing their faces for a minute a day and then passing on. The smaller looked to the larger, and planned its next move. He turned briefly […]
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by Amanda Higgin Xanda and I have been having a conversation about our respective literary collections, wandering together around University Parks after having lunch in town. As an English Literature degree student, Xanda is obliged to have a huge collection of books of impressive quality; as an English Literature A-leveller I choose to have a […]
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A pdf of the print version of Issue #20 – ‘Bodies’ – can be downloaded here: Issue #20 – Bodies
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by Tobias Thornes Like a great, central artery, the Trans-Siberian Railway sweeps right across the vast expanse of Russia the giant. From Vladivostok in the East to Moscow in the West, through snowy plains and forested mountains, crossing countless streams with names unknown to travellers overwhelmed by so great a swiftly sweeping, vanishing array, it […]
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by Charlie Willis Her Uncle Ronnie had found them. He came to their front door on that rainy winter’s evening cradling a bundle of ragged clothes. They were in the other room watching television when they heard the knock echo out into the hall. Her mother groaned, and summoned just enough energy to lift up […]
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by Kryssa Burakowski The cultural fingerprints of the Austro-Hungarian Empire can still be found all over Zagreb, a city that was under the rule of the Habsburg monarchy for centuries. Its mark can be clearly seen in the traces of the fin-de-siècle Vienna Secession movement across Zagreb. Croatian architects of the period, many of […]
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by Max Schwiening The Build Start your training off very easy, you should be able to talk while running. Make your runs as short as they need to be to be able to train every day. Try to make the total distance for the week increase each week – aim for around a 10% increase, […]
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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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The following piece contains scenes which may be distressing for some readers. The noise is muted. It’s just a buzzing dull throbbing in the back of my head that I can ignore. The hand, however, is a problem. The hand is what your eyes are drawn to, what your heart palpitates on seeing clench and […]
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by Alice Correia Morton This isn’t strictly from the reduced section of the supermarket, but this week courgettes are bizarrely cheap in Tesco (4 medium for 79p or 60p). After the recent shortage and hike in price, this might come as a pleasant surprise. Although simple, omelettes are both filling and, since this one includes […]
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by Emma Gilpin ‘Self-care’ and ‘self-love’ have become everyday terms, a revolt against a society which tells us, constantly, that we are not quite enough. Inevitably, there are those who criticise and mock this self-care movement: the idea that people should spend time looking after and taking time for themselves can seem strange or uncomfortable […]
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by Jonathon Yeung I was barely a year old on June 30th, 1997. In the final hours before China regained sovereignty at midnight, the last governor of Hong Kong, Chris Patten, gave his farewell address on a windswept stage in the heart of the city. Amidst the pouring rain, he offered a message of hope, […]
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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 Kryssa Burakowski In the oldest part of the city of Zagreb, just a street away from the iconic roof of St. Mark’s church, you can find the Museum of Broken Relationships. Zagreb does not have a shortage of museums but this one is relatively young and strikingly different; a concept which splinters away from more […]
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by Amanda Higgin Xanda and I are meeting up in first week, perched on the steps of the Martyrs’ Monument with our takeaway paper cups in hand, making the most of the transitory British sunshine. In an effort to turn the conversation away from the looming threat of my Prelims, Xanda ventures the extracurricular line of […]
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by Alice Correia Morton Although I didn’t give myself enough time to make this recipe vegan, it is completely vegetarian. The key ingredient of the dish is one of Tesco’s pre-prepared medleys of ‘vegetables with herbed butter’, particularly the one comprised of asparagus, edamame beans and tender stem broccoli etc.. It tends to be in the […]
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by Tobias Thornes Saint Petersburg was famously said to be the most ‘intentional’ city in the world. In some respects it has always resembled more symbol than settlement: the symbol of what its founder, Peter the Great, wanted his Russia to be in 1703; the symbol of an artificially Europeanised ‘western’ Russian culture under the […]
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A pdf of the print version of Issue #19 – ‘Fracture’ – can be downloaded here: Issue #19 – Fracture
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by Jacob Warn, former Executive Editor, currently volunteering with refugees on the Greek island of Chios The refugee crisis has brought populations all over Europe to a breaking point of intolerance. Local populations, once welcoming, have lost their patience, evidenced on Chios, a Greek island separated from Turkey by five kilometres of water. Here, as elsewhere, […]
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by Alex Waygood For a man who has a lot to say, Brian Eno doesn’t always say that much. High Life, his 2014 collaborative album with Karl Hyde, is relatively verbose; Eno is nowadays best known for his pioneering albums of ambient music, beginning in the 1970s. Yet you’d be hard-pressed to find any of […]
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‘We want people to hear the stuff and make up their own stories because we captured a snapshot of this feeling that is available. Lyrics have to allow the music to talk on its own in-between and the music has to let the lyrics stir you, burn, lift you.’ – A.O.S.O.O.N. by Jennifer Potter The […]
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by Joe Wilson I was first introduced to the music of T. Rex, when I watched the childhood classic film Billy Elliot, which opens with Billy placing Electric Warrior on a turntable and skipping the needle to ‘Cosmic Dancer’. However, Electric Warrior was released almost thirty years before the film was, at the end of […]
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by Fifi Korda Ever wanted to be lost in some bar down in Columbia with only a funk band, cocktails and some crazy dancing to entertain you? If so, this is the album for you. At the age of just 23, Derek Trucks released his third studio album Joyful Noise on 2 September 2002. Having […]
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by Eleanor Juckes Fleetwood Mac are described by many as the epitome of a ’70s band. They were cool, they were troubled, and they produced music that went straight to the soul. Fleetwood Mac developed very different musical feelings over time as their band changed its line-up multiple times. The way members would leave and […]
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by Anna Wawrzonkowska As I travelled along the winding roads of coastal Victoria, Australia, I was reading a book by a man called Big Bill Neidjie – as the last speaker of the now-extinct Gaagudju language and the elder of Kakadu in Northern Territory, he is a man of incomparable experience and wisdom regarding the […]
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by Aidan Chivers The Myth of Rhodes: a Special Report The Myth of Rhodes: Editoriel Rhodes: a Perspective Rhodes Must Fall: a Timeline Putting Rhodes in His Place Iconography Campaigns: a Global Perspective Safe Spaces and Student Protest Complete Bibliography for the Report Dr Ian Forrest: Guide to Further Reading Facebook posts cited Previous Poor Print coverage […]
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by Rebecca Slater When I tell people I’m doing a creative writing degree there are two questions that people usually ask: the first is ‘Why?’ and the second, ‘How?’ The ‘how’ is an interesting place to start. With university course fees rising and incomes for writers falling, the financial outlook of a creative writing degree […]
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A pdf of the print version of Issue #18 – ‘Myth’ – can be downloaded here: Issue #18 – Myth
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by Alex Waygood The Myth of Rhodes: a Special Report The Myth of Rhodes: Editoriel Rhodes: a Perspective Rhodes Must Fall: a Timeline Putting Rhodes in His Place Iconography Campaigns: a Global Perspective Safe Spaces and Student Protest Complete Bibliography for the Report Dr Ian Forrest: Guide to Further Reading Facebook posts cited Previous Poor Print coverage […]
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by Alice Correia-Morton Apologies for the repetition of the salmon theme from last issue, but it is consistently reduced and so worthy of the feature. However, this recipe would work equally well with any oily fish, such as trout or mackerel. Although it may or may not be a fad, the omega oils found in […]
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by Joanna Engle The Myth of Rhodes: A Special Report The Myth of Rhodes: Editoriel Rhodes: A Perspective Rhodes Must Fall: A Timeline Putting Rhodes in His Place Iconography Campaigns: A Global Perspective Safe Spaces and Student Protest Complete Bibliography for the Report Dr Ian Forrest: Guide to Further Reading Facebook posts cited Previous Poor Print coverage […]
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by Alex Waygood
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by Charlie Willis
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The Poor Print 