by Siddiq Islam ‘What?! … like … Jesus!’ ‘Yes, exactly like Jesus!’ It’s wonderful to see Oxford’s theatre scene thriving again post-COVID. Opportunities to see fantastic productions like this were not regularly available a year ago. Dead Man’s Suitcase posits the following question – is it possible for your life to have a reset button? […]
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by Bertie Castello 6 AM on a Tuesday morning. Florentine friend sends me a link, possibly reminiscing our transalpine past with the typical sarcastic grin that comes naturally with our undying emigrant superiority complex. Italians are interesting creatures. Recently, it has been asserted, intra Orielensia moenia, that we may in fact be Untermenschen, as we […]
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by Siddiq Islam I’d heard of His trials and temptations before, butHe didn’t just leave them out, peppered around.He crammed my tongue full with them, muzzled my jaws shutAnd tilted my head back to make them go down.So mad was I. This was the God I had followed,Lifting my tongue up to check that I’d […]
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by Siddiq Islam The brain is a mysterious thing. Its complexities are so far beyond our understanding. We cannot say much about why we think the way we do, why we construct certain schemas, why Beary McBearface can have such wild dreams as the one he relates in his answer to ‘Dear Beary’ question 2. […]
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by Beary McBearface Hello there! My name’s Beary, one of the giant teddy bears who hang out in the JCR – I’m the brown one; my purple counterpart is John Henry. As The Poor Print’s self-anointed agony aunt, I’m here to help you with any troubles you’re facing. Please send me your college (or general) […]
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A PDF of the print version of Issue #84 – Brains – can be downloaded here.
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by S. Hardaker Troy Story: Age of the Hero is an adventurous and ambitious tale of the Battle of Troy, told through the personal stories of the gods, Achilles (played by Jak Spencer) and Patroclus (Alex Rawnsley), as well as Hector (Gillian Konko) and Andromache (Erin Malinowski). Marketed as a night of myth, a journey […]
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by Claudia Hutuleac
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by y/n Dick, You’re holding the gun against me so gently. Ironic, since there’s already an arrow lodged deep within my chest. Your smouldering gaze holds me frozen in place and my heart skips a beat. I knew you would come for me. ‘Everyone thinks they know my story’, you say. But they’ve only heard […]
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by Ben Nolan (JCR Class Officer) In the UK, there are 2,500 food banks. To put this into perspective, there are 1,374 branches of McDonald’s, 2,322 branches of Subway and 2,181 Greggs outlets. In the wake of increasing inflation and worsening energy costs, this statistic has never commanded a greater sense of urgency. The mark […]
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A PDF of the print version of Issue #83 – Reflection – can be downloaded here.
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by Becky Collett Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there lived a boy named Alex. Alex was 19 years old, and an avid rower, belonging to the notoriously rowing-obsessed Oxford college – Oriel. And because he was the men’s rowing captain, both he and the women’s captain were entitled to a […]
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by Beary McBearface Hello there! My name’s Beary, one of the giant teddy bears who hang out in the JCR – I’m the brown one; my purple counterpart is John Henry. As The Poor Print’s self-anointed agony aunt, I’m here to help you with any troubles you’re facing. Please send me your college (or general) […]
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by S. Hardaker limbs and flower stems seem oddly similar,branching and stretching and aching in their own ways;growing pains, a reminder of maturing. my legs are slowly giving way.i am 11,i am 15. i have stopped growing now,the legs say,you are stuck like this. the wind changed.a gust could whisk petals away,start a new bed. […]
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by Siddiq Islam that thing I had planned to dowas probably not that great of an ideaanyways. Silly concoctions of the mindbreak away,biscuit crumbs soakingin the Earl Grey of common sense. ‘Swap unrealitiesfor sturdy, long-term investments,’ they tell me.‘Just like crypto!’On second thoughts, maybe not … And on third thoughts, swim in it.Drown and laugh […]
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by Pia Regensburger A scar is a mark left on the skin after a wound or an injury has healed. This definition likely comes to mind first and foremost in any reflection on scars. The scars we see, the marks left on our bodies bearing witness to past experiences, are likely to remind us of […]
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by Beary McBearface Hello there! My name’s Beary, one of the giant teddy bears who hang out in the JCR – I’m the brown one; my purple counterpart is John Henry. As The Poor Print’s self-anointed agony aunt, I’m here to help you with any troubles you’re facing. Please send me your college (or general) […]
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by David Akanji Davis’s work, which was exhibited at the David Zwirner around this time last year, is still especially ground-breaking today. Davis prematurely died in 2015 at the age of 32, but his work focused on the reframing of what it means to be black. His piece The Year of the Coxswain captures the […]
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by Evie Sharp In this column, The Poor Print will interview various people around college to find out more about their everyday lives. In this issue, Evie Sharp speaks with one of the new additions to Oriel’s team of friendly porters. Carlos Giménez tells her about his favourite places, activities and memories. 1. What is […]
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by Anna Bartlett (JCR Environment Officer) Again, headlines have been filled with reports of the ‘extreme’ tactics of environmental protesters due to the actions of a couple of soup-spewing youths. For some reason (beyond what I can fathom as rational), this event appears to have horrified some people more than the collapse of life on […]
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A PDF of the print version of Issue #82 – Scars – can be downloaded here.
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by O Collopy I always think it’s getting betterBut then something triggers a memory:A phrase or photo in my mind,Then the shockwaves retaliate. Months of progress gone to waste,Or just trying to move on in haste?Is this how I’m supposed to heal?If only I could hear how you feel! My deepest desires long for beforeTruly […]
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‘He plunges a fist / Of lupin bulb into the soil’s dark skin…’
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by Ayomikun Bolaji I searched my body for scarsFigured I’d write about how I got them Take a flight down memory laneTalk about how I fought through the painProudly flex my badge of honourFrom that one time I climbed a towerOr something … I don’t have anyScars, I don’t have any scarsAt least no major […]
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by Nikita Jain In the couple of weeks since I arrived in the south of France, I’ve realised that my quest for perfection is the main barrier stopping me from improving my French. I’m so afraid of making mistakes that I often find myself rehearsing sentences in my head before I contribute to a conversation. […]
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A PDF of the print version of Issue #81 – Instinct – can be downloaded here.
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by Siddiq Islam Editor’s note: You can listen to Siddiq’s song reposted on The Poor Print’s SoundCloud page, or by following this link. [Chorus]It’s not too hardIt isn’t difficult to figure out what you’re thinkingI can tell from your arms and your hips and the rate of your blinkingThe twitch in your fingertips and all […]
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by Carolina Cortés Viliplana Hunger is a human instinct, yet some power-hungry people border on the inhumane.
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by Ayomikun Bolaji
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by Anonymous Art school was a weird one for me. I remember feeling very invalid, unschooled and also, and probably most poignantly, too ‘uncomplacent’. I think white complacency is a hallmark of contemporary art. It operates in how comfortable white people can engage with autonomy, because they have grown up in a world that has […]
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by Jenny Heath Motion:This House Has No Confidencein His Majesty’s Government. At the annual Oxford Union debate on confidence in our government, 45 people voted that they had confidence in our government. Less than 24 hours later, Kwasi Kwarteng was fired as Chancellor in the latest twist in what can only be described as a […]
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by Beary McBearface Hello there! My name’s Beary, one of the giant teddy bears who hang out in the JCR – I’m the brown one; my purple counterpart is John Henry. As The Poor Print’s self-anointed agony aunt, I’m here to help you with any troubles you’re facing. Please send me your college (or general) […]
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