Shared Humanity

I am you

Like the whizzing air con fan

Is a light Barbados breeze

For who can see the space between

The dripping insulation on the pipe

And a pot of clotted cream?

Do away with strolls, in populated parks-

The peeling-poster promenades on

Station platforms, play the part

Dwell not on losing gentle touch,

The STOP sign bars on buses

Are a feeling friend, at which to clutch

No, who needs your breath,

A laughing wind, when the bin lid

Blows out, on closing in?

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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