BSJ

The Butler Scholarly Journal

Category: Creative Writing

  1. Take Courage, Have Hope: A Creative Piece by Charlotte Watson

    Charlotte Watson creatively explores Anne’s unique character in this moving and brilliantly- written piece. Featured image credit: Barley, Flickr Creative Commons [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/] Note from the Author I first read The Tenant of Wildfell Hall during my last year of secondary school, and from the very beginning, it struck me as a hugely engaging, critical, dare-I- say- it feminist text. It was bold and subversive, revolutionary and impactful, and yet still maintained a sense of the Victorian sensibility of feeling. In short, it seemed to me to be the very opposite of the way in which Anne Bronte is primarily characterised….

  2. ‘Some Distant Heath’: A Collection of Poems by Ryan Robson- Bluer

    Based on the lives of Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë [Featured Image: Moorland Derelict by Not So Dusty, Flickr Creative Commons] ‘Yet, though I cannot see thee more‘Tis still a comfort to have seen,And though thy transient life is o’er‘Tis sweet to think that thou hast been’ ‘A Reminiscence’, Anne Brontë. View From A Train Through The Yorkshire DalesIFor Charlotte, Emily and AnneI see three girls; barefoot, untethered,Bound proudly o’er both heath and stream;Through joyous splats of wind-blown heatherGo three, hand in hand, eyes agleam.Three dresses, torn by rock and thorn,Stitched up – restitched – and torn again,Whip wild ‘cross…

  3. Same Old Shopping List

    This poem by Molly Knox explores the pressures of lockdown, especially during the initial lockdown, in a creative, innovative way. [Image credits: ‘COVID-19’ by Jon Taylor/Flickr]

  4. Confinement Chronicles: Freshers’ in Lockdown

    “Despite the potential for a mass outbreak looming over our heads, Josephine Butler students, and Durham students writ large, have shown a true resilience and a fighting spirit.” Jessica Pabon, a Butlerite fresher, discusses lockdown anxieties, homesickness and enjoying university life during a pandemic.

  5. For Henryk

    What have those watery globes in industrial goggles seen?Frozen lakes, dance halls, unexpectedGoodbyes, I’m sure. Locked vaults of anaesthetic and no Combination. You’ve trapped me in those unbroken Codes. I know you want to forget,But every mispronunciation Reminds me of what I’m lacking. A name with no recollection;A name with no language. You’re no angel just a vulnerable Old man broken by his past. And that breaks Me. I’ve been mourning my history Since before I was born. You deserve memorial But, how can I remember you when you won’t let me?

  6. oh, to be a rose upon your cheek!

    I have a memory of you, one that can never be corrupted by the passage of time. It was in a garden in June.   There you lay in this expanse of green, this garden of ours. You had collapsed by a rose bush, the blushing petals of one low- lying flower rested upon your cheek. You looked at me, lying beside you, eye to eye, nose to nose and you grinned at me. You closed your eyes. I admired you, all of you; the soft line your lashes form, the curve of your dark pink lips, the light you…

  7. The Questioning Closet

    “It’s locked.” “No it’s not.” “I’m telling you it is!” “Let me try.” I stand, brush past her purposely, take the yellow door handle with both of my deceptively strong arms and pull. Yank. Pathetically lurch and heave. It’s locked. “Shit.” “I told you.” I hate that she can say that, “Is this a joke? Did you do this?” She stops. Her amused face goes dead pan and bitter right in front of me, “Wow Em.” I falter. Moron. It’s always the phrases I don’t filter that go on to sting. Normally when I manage to damage a conversation, I’ll…