by Fanxi Liu I had intended to write about language, twisting together the various strands of my degree and eclectic personal interests into a modern monstrosity that reads as if it had been processed through the digestive system of a very sick cat. Coy, cryptic sideways-glances at complex philosophical concepts with impressive institutional pedigrees, with […]
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by Martin Yip When the coronavirus pandemic first hit the UK in March, I hastily left the country and returned home. My family decided that I should quarantine for fourteen days. During those days, I was confined to one room, where I would eat, work, and sleep, and one bathroom which no one else would […]
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by Siddiq Islam The numb, stale air and the spiders’ feet,Cannot disrupt this human flour,This dead snow, this organic sleetThat softens the shelves where it starts to flower,And my absent fingers cannot sweepThe dust from where the spiders sleep, Nor the dust off the troops who, without bookend,Are made to kneel, by weight shoved down.Their […]
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by Michael Angerer So here we go – after months of staying at home, staying alert, and preferably both, we’re back. Back in our little term-time homes away from home. For some, the change will be less jarring than for others. After all, lockdown is excellent training for the monastic lifestyle that characterises the modern […]
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by Anonymous we were, if I might say, a match made in hell. fiery passions of youthful ignorance, of grandiose ambition, pure chaos, recklessness the oblivion of nights without ends. we existed, always, solely, on borrowed time. this infatuation comes without warning, fleeting, like a gush of wind, amidst the sweltering summer heat – potential […]
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by Monim Wains
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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. All you need to do is email thepoorprint@oriel.ox.ac.uk with the subject line ‘Dear Beary’, and if you’re lucky […]
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A PDF of the print version of Issue #57 – Home – can be downloaded here.
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by Dania Kamal Aryf Hope is a ray of sunlight that slips through the windows of a fourteen-hour flight, Hope packaged in a luggage bag, not more than thirty kilograms, because they expect a lot from you but you can never be too much, yet you should never be not enough; Hope is the faintest flicker […]
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by Soo Yi Yun The heavy downpour, the brief thunderstorm, and petrichor fill up the air— down the cycling path and the memory lane called home. The rain in Oxford has been reminiscent of my home country since last week. In a tropical country like Malaysia, it is common to have downpours every now and then. […]
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by Aidan Chivers The air around me is calm and still as I wake up, but if I keep my eyes closed and breathe slowly, I can still hear the fading echoes of church bells, morning lectures and Latin grace. They have not vanished, but are softly receding into old, fading patterns which hold glimpses […]
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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 Emma Gilpin Shifting from one language to another feels strange. It feels almost like I have more than one personality, as if there is a strange sort of discord between my English and German speaking selves. I have always loved words, which is why I chose to study languages in the first place. But, […]
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The Poor Print 