by ZX and Martin Yip ‘Nostalgia’ has two meanings. Originally, it meant ‘homesickness’. Today, it means ‘longing for the past’. For Hongkongers living in the UK, both meanings are apt. On Sunday 9th June, huge crowds filled the streets of Hong Kong to protest against a proposed law that would allow anyone in Hong Kong […]
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by Tom Saer ‘Can you give me a cautious “yes”?’floats up to me from the past, one of my first auditions. Time is a flat circle for me for five small portal minutes.Out of my pint glass body, staring at the stage, the wormhole made when I think about what things look like from the […]
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by Leo Gillard Content warning: implied/referenced emotional abuse The sky was dark, and as Zach sat on the chair next to the radiator, he could watch snow falling. The street they lived on was always pretty poorly lit at night, but the light from the single streetlamp he could spot illuminated the flakes as they […]
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A PDF of the print version of Issue #45 – Nostalgia – can be downloaded here.
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by Peter Gent Four years ago when we launched the print edition of The Poor Print, the editorial team, then led by Jacob Warn, had an idea: we would publish anything anyone submitted. But, we said, we would only do so if we could shape submissions with a strong editorial hand. We wanted concise, pithy, […]
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by Monim Wains A blank white lit the room, harsh surgical light on every sterile surface. It would have felt clean and empty were it not for the sombre that stained the air. Silence echoed through the room. All the colours were muted: pastel blue and that green that looked like plastic dyed in washing […]
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by Chloe Jacobs I wonder if my mother, younger, Hair bleached summer blonde And smelling, strong, of chlorine, Ever pictured this. This cold place,That borrowed home, Her careful calculus of living. They say you give a part Of yourself, to your child.Inventory: eyes, nose, lips, fear,Hands like mine hand them to me.Perhaps this is why […]
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by David K. Asamoah Oh starry night, I look at you and swoonEnchanted by your ever constant gaze Your numberless glowing orbs watch o’er the ruin Of sleeping souls held in a somnolent haze Not all are blessed to lose into that scent Some run past dawn and miss that gorgeous highBut while the odour […]
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by Michael Angerer The end of the academic year is upon us, vacation-time is about to break out, and so it is time to look back fondly upon our term as Executive Editors of The Poor Print: it is time for nostalgia. You might think that the word ‘nostalgia’ has ancient roots; you would be wrong. […]
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Text and Photograph by Megan Bowler It seemed a waste to let the petals fall and wither,to grace and mingle with the hoovered dust.There was a selfishness in keeping a flower,cut and vased and terminal. Doomed, they bloomed a frail week,irredeemable, and yet I could not part with the remainder. Crushed and crispened under weighty […]
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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.ukwith the subject line ‘Dear Beary’. Of course, if you’d […]
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by Joe Gardiner
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by David K. Asamoah Those eyes tell not a story rich and grand Like pompous bards of epic poetry old Nor do they orate odes to bright morns gold Those dark depths whisper of a starry land And on the fateful odyssey unplanned My soul took to the dreamy waters wellHoping to leave with chronicles […]
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by Tom Saer You have bad taste in encouragement She tells me how to eat The swan dipping in the water narwhal face She tells me what to eat The feathers on the ground She tells me not to eat The chaotic glee of the universe The tone that rhymes with all your curvature
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by Kate Whittington My birth is a juddery one. I am seized by quick, tight spasms and then torn jaggedly from white unborn skin. I am imprinted quickly in strong black lines. There is little after-flow of blood. Into her hands, her fingers, warm jittering fingers and wrists damp with scent and sweat, little nicks […]
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A PDF of the print version of Issue #44 – Light – can be downloaded here.
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by James Hobson
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by Leo Gillard The sunlight was streaming through the trees, dappling the ground with ever-shifting patterns. As they walked, Sasha in front and Zach next to him just behind her, leaves steadily fell from the trees with every gust of wind. Further off in the distance, Arthur could hear Willow somewhere in the stream. Well, […]
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by Monim Wains Skin pulled tight with springs and coils tense and stiff. Cold attic on a dry winter day, lit only by moon-blue beams that cut a chill in your chest. Each breath ebbing out in gasps. Anguish for a single sunlit ribbon to swim through it all, awashing you in warmth. To lay […]
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by Fanxi Liu
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by The Lone Pencil The futuristic dragon looks up at the butterfly, which flies down in the midst of a ray of light. We do not know what the dragon thinks. Will he eat the butterfly? Or is he admiring the tiny creature and the perfect moment? Dragons do not spend all their time hunting, treasuring or fighting […]
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by Samanwita Sen When walking away after watching a performance of My Mother Runs in Zig-Zags, perhaps the most lasting impression one is left with is how seamlessly and intricately the play has been put together. It’s no secret that, when watching the play, every note that is struck, every movement that is executed, and every […]
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by Emma McIntyre Fie! Away, mournful silence!It is you again, who finds comfort in the uniform greys;The faded names. The eroded stone; you, alone.Sunrise, sunset. Son, brother, friend. You continue; crushing souls beneath your feetUntil you pause at mine, and studyThe inscription above my headThrough the sky’s deluge and through my marrow.Letters carved into immortal […]
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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 […]
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by Anonymous The granting of privileges to drinking societies is incompatible with a College ethos of inclusivity and equality. A contradiction lies at the very heart of the justification for College offering privileges to drinking societies. Two conceptions of these clubs are offered; neither of these are adequate and it is only through the unjustified […]
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by Monim Wains Love has a thousand shades from the mellowest yellow to the deepest red. It paints the grey wrinkles of a face onto a canvas, traced with lolling eyes and a lazy smile. Love. Passion and heat, calm warmth, drowning emotion and friendship. Inside jokes and a decade of moments, threads of memories […]
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A PDF of the print version of Issue #43 – Essence – can be downloaded here.
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by Leo Gillard It was mid-June, and the sun was probably burning the back of Sasha’s neck by now. She’d regret it later, but right now she couldn’t bring herself to care all that much. No, her priority was the ground in front of her: weaving her fingers through the warm earth, rooting out the […]
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by Samanwita Sen
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by Michael Angerer Once the world is ended I will seeThe glittering stars go drifting by,Leaving their sparkling trails upon an empty sky,Unfolding, falling, flowing slowly towards me. I know not dark, not brightness here,Where dawnless light endarkens speechless thoughtOf future past and present yet unclear,All non-existent in my lonely void unwrought. And how could […]
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by Tom Saer The world is but a simulated blurAll the way through to the core, To the metals inside. Is religion an explosion of gratitude? So happy I could cry. ‘Therefore, since we aren’t clever people, we should adopt the method of investigation that we’d use if, lacking keen eyesight, we were told to […]
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A PDF of the print version of Issue #42 – Beauty – can be downloaded here.
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by Samanwita Sen You have always marvelled at the immaculate gloss of supermarket aisles, the shiny pages of magazine covers categorized into pristine, neat little sections which spring out to accost you with a lurid burst of colour; lurid, precisely to compensate for the depthless caricatures they celebrate; lurid, as if in contrived rebellion against […]
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by Leo Gillard ‘Ready?’ Arthur asked, his eyes fixed on the building in front of them. It was… small. The garden was covered in weeds, the grass overgrown, leaves still on the ground from autumn. The house itself was built of red brick, a squat-looking bungalow with shuttered windows, the blue paint of the door […]
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by Martin Yip The Chinese writing system is one of the most beautiful currently in use. Compared to alphabets, whose characters are phonographic (meaning they represent sounds), Chinese characters are logographic: each character represents a word or phrase. The result is a system that elegantly condenses information, and rich in aesthetic value. Around two millennia […]
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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 your […]
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by Monim Wains Crisp air blows at my hands and ears; spring breaks from winter. Some days that chill and others that mellow. Freshness surrounds me now; everything filtered with a screen of sunlight behind the clouds. The green grass is shaded a slight yellow, as if the air is coloured warm. My legs are […]
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by Monim Wains
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by David Asamoah A thousand suns had come and gone before himWhat made this one so special? So enchanting That even now he’d sit and wait adoring The golden light shine on the stream, and dancing Pebbles swirl in the low tide returning To kiss the worn out coast. On that still morning The sky […]
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by Zixin Jiang Having come to law from a background in philosophy, I’m sometimes asked which of the two I like better. The two are similar, e.g. they both test a combination of logical and verbal skills. I find both very interesting. Philosophy can be very abstract sometimes, whereas law has a more obvious practical […]
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