Longing

longing to see you again, when you chew your pen when you’re nervous; when you glance into car windows just to see your reflection; when you get frustrated when your hair doesn’t go right; when you check your phone, only to see it was a text from Dominos telling you about an offer; when you smile; when your laughs lights up a room and it’s funnier than the joke; when you double check that you’ve turned off the lights; when you remember the little things; when you breathe, no, when you breathed. When you existed. I long to wait to see you again.

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This piece is a part of a tribute to Exeter student Jaz Kenny. As well as featured online, this tribute will be published in the upcoming print journal.

‘It is a privilege to teach first year students in their first term – to be part of a time of discovery, excitement, and flowering. One student who began her degree in English and Creative writing in 2021, and who was full of promise and imagination, was Jaz Kenny. It was a terrible shock to all of us when we learned that she had died, suddenly, from medical complications, just a few weeks into her time as a student at Exeter. As convenor and lecturer on the introductory Creative Writing module, Write After Reading, I wasn’t lucky enough to get to know Jaz personally; but many of her fellow students were, and so was her seminar tutor, and her death touched all of us deeply. To honour Jaz’s passion for creative writing, her fellow first year Creative Writing students decided to produce a collection of creative tributes to her. Those tributes, together with three of Jaz’s own poems that she composed as part of her course, are included in this special issue, published with love and care by the wonderful team at Enigma Journal. Jaz, and your family, this is for you.’

Ellen Wiles, Lecturer in Creative Writing