‘18
scope winter
�CKNO WLEDGE MENT� editor-in-chief / abigail wong luca thompson / pei yu suen / victoria tse / yuet sham / jia thadani / jocelyn chung / —the scope team
NOTE FROM THE
ĒDITOR Thank you for your continued support for SCOPE. The 2018-2019 school year will be my last one here, the place that I might call my second home. This first issue’s theme of time is reflective of that, where we look back on time and human history to consider how we’ve developed from myths and regard the future. It is a moment of wondering what it holds in store for all of us. Enjoy!
LED Screens Jia Thadani
Underdeveloped eyes of tots Radiations pushing hard on retinas Detached? Night black skies One blazing screen Brightening up monotonous countenances Normal? The new generation is here They say, advancements are necessary Are they Harming? We hug and embrace it Like a newborn child, A crack leaves us shattered Cover it with a blanket. Take care of your phones, They are healthy addictive devices.
Grandma’s Garden Mana Mehta
A pond furnished with carpeted moss, Orange-goldfish flitter, Cat claws skitter, Small pebbles surrounding. Beds of lavender cover us, The grass beneath our feet, Prickly but alive with colour, Tickling the backs of our knees. Beneath a champagne sky, Pink with specks of stars, And it was only 6pm. Sparkling rose lemonade, Sizzling bhinda hitting the pan, The smell of ground turmeric, Smoke lifting.
ILLUSORY BEAUTY AUDREY TAM
The skyscrapers reaching high above, Marking the best of the city, standing tall Shimmering in the sunlight, reflecting ambition, Like thorns, snaking upwards, surrounding us all. Elegant icons of success, Towering above like iron lords. Clothed by shards of glinting glass, Piercing the sky like sharpened swords.
Stunning, though they may seem to be, They are nothing but beguiling illusions. Hiding the rotten foundations beneath, The city’s self-serving delusions. The outward beauty conceals the horror, of injustice and pervasive crime. The glorious surface is only skin-deep, Below it lies the festering grime. The shiny facade masks the cracks, that spread and grow like a web of lies. Though the beautiful exteriors are soulless, these empty husks will continue to rise.
" I can / Cup
pastel blues and orange-pinks in my hands
Terra Tiffany Tsui
“We are getting more alike” murmured Venus to me one day For my clouded breath and tan-turned skin gives me resemblance to my smaller twin. “Forsake your puny humans” said Mars to me the other day For it is true that they wring destruction by the means of glorifying pollution.
Yet as I feel their feet tickle the crust of my skin Their drill bits fast boring into my mantle As I extend my awareness up to tops of buildings stick-thin I can Cup pastel blues and orange-pinks in my hands Skip across sea with blurring pinpricks of white Live fleeting days in the shoes of busy youths Dance over settlements lit in glow-fires. Humans purge and they pillage- ah They devastate my blues and greens But their creations take my breath And our hearts resonate as one. Thus ‘til the end of their bleak daysI’ll stand by them and watch them fall, tell their tales generations past, ensure their efforts not for naught.
recommendation
spoken word poetry
Victoria Tse
Perfect by Maia Mayor Living in a world full of expectations, Perfect by Maia Mayor has given me chills every single time (despite hearing it for the first time almost 2 years ago). Mayor’s raw and impassioned performance of her poetry has not only moved me to tears with how close it had hit home; it has also made me think deeply about the way we teach and raise our future generation. Pushing the young to go over the edge and watching them fall and collapse — is it really worth it? “Stop committing yourself to songs and stories and spoken slam bullsh*t in a world where degrees and PhDs, impede the need for poetry.” “The clothes go in the hamper, Maia / Not displayed on your bed like your lack of morals / Not littered on the floor collecting more dust than my withered expectations.”
Lunch by Sienna Burnett
n
Lunch by Sienna Burnett is one of my favorite spoken words with a cryptic metaphor — it truly made me listen and try to understand what it was really about. “And I put my hands to the rim of the plastic Tupperware, and Jim saw me from across the room, I mean he watched me do it and he didn’t ask me to stop.” “You could tell it took a lot of time and effort to put this meal together like he made it just for me.” “Look, I didn’t do anything wrong. It’s his fault for not speaking up, and now I’m being blamed for something he let me do?” “It’s not like I used force, it was sitting right there, so I took it. / Why would he come to work with something so enticing, if he didn’t want me to have a taste?” “Jim came into work flaunting his gourmet food and I was starving. I mean, what did he think was gonna happen? It’s basically like he was asking for it.”
REVIEW
�igh As Hope Luca Thompson
SKY FULL OF SONG
grab me by the ankles, i’ve been flying for too long.
Trying to characterise High as Hope is as simple as it is difficult. It is raw and confessional, as a Florence and the Machine record now seems wont to be, but this quality presents itself in many different ways. I have called it a home I can return to, a phoenix reborn in the flames of admission to adulthood, the descent into love—these metaphors are as familiar to me as the album itself. The opening chords of “June” feel the way I imagine letting in an old lover would, 100 Years holds a fury that cannot thaw with time, and I’ve watched enough sunsets to The End of Love to hear the notending as the notes die. Though a new release, the album is an ode to the past, from the confessions of Hunger to the proud anthem that is 100 Years. History, lived and learned, seeps through each line of the album and gives each song its colour. Where How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful was composed of of chills and anger, High as Hope is kinder. It’s warm even at its harshest, comforting in its moments of sorrow. Welch channels a unique lifeblood to invigorate the album with a love of life that seems to fill then settle in your bones.
RAIGN
Lana Del Rey
Raise The Dead
Young & Beautiful
Lorde
Marshmello & Khalid
Glory And Core
Hailee Steinfield
Silence
Stealth
Back To Life
Judgement Day
Amber Run
Keaton Simons
Frickle Game
When I Go
King Princess 1950
Billie Eilish Ocean Eyes
Neil Sedaka & Elton John Bad Blood
Mitski Nobody
Martin Garrix feat. Khalid Ocean
Lay Zhang
Give Me A Chance
Frankie Valli & the Four Season
Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You
Sia
I’m Still Here
The Person I Love The Most Award Nominated Short Film by Mansie Tam
goo.gl/ikiqRq
Ĥappy Holidays! —from the Scope Team
Thanks
for reading!
I f y o u’d l i k e t o s e e y o u r c r e a t i v e w o r k ( p o e t r y / p r o s e / s t o r i e s / p h o t o g r a p h s / a r t w o r k / a ny t h i n g ) p u b l i s h e d i n S C O P E , o r h a v e a ny c o m m e n t s , w e’d l o v e t o h e a r from you! S e n d a ny t h i n g t o w e a r e s c o p e @ g m a i l . c o m
FIND US AT
@wearescope