LU Arts and LSU International Students' Network joined forces last November to empower and highlight the expanse of nationalities at Loughborough University by showcasing their creative talents on social media.

International Students at Loughborough University with talents and artforms that reflected the essence of another country, including painting, crafts, design & photography were chosen from an incredible array of submissions.

In celebration of International Students Week here at the university, LU Arts is proud to display their work below.

Based on Richard Powers ‘Bewilderment’ (2022)

The Silence of a Galaxy

We wandered in empty space but got ejected
I was rogue planets in timeless night
trapped at the crossover
Failed silence cloaked
the deadest place of the universe outgrew
any aware intelligence

find another greenhouse.

The volcanic seams couldn’t learn new tricks
Making me up for the universe to see
outrageous designs kept watching:
our endless was the better one.

My melting point can eat all kind of things.

One chain of volcanic islands sprinkled through an empty book
spread hosts for creatures
taking turns to sleep
my own planet spoke millions of colours
only he’ll never hear them.

They trapped life between permanent noon and midnight
          their minds failed to comprehend
I saw no one on Earth
 forever
I exist,
            ten million empty books,
Alone
Perpetual one-in-a-million, iced
They shared common knowledge
that I heard in colour-like somethings

Abandoned pastures of solar cells fallen into decay
All frozen
            on its own
Going on forever until the power failed

blazed transitory feelings
in a modest star system lost in grace
my power never managed to get their attention

I?
Gone
                 remember
                             remember
real pain: where is everyone?
I ought to never have been
Believe, the burn of the sun
the smell of living solutions
changing inside my head
Light travels past black holes,
take me for a quick look around,
time is there
I know what it wants from me
His brain learns
he knows what I love,
He sees the universe in me
                But we might never find them.

3,857 Miles

When I was 1,

My ammi left her home behind, 

She tells me it was to give me a better life, 

But I know that it came at the cost of her own.

I see the way she clutches her parents, 

When we say our goodbyes at the airport. 

The smell of my grandfather’s ittar lingers on my mother’s tear-stained face, 

She longs for the day where these goodbyes do not have to take place. 

——

I remember my ammi working nights.

She told me it was so she could earn money for us.

I just wished she could stay by my side, 

Patting my hair while singing me the loris of her childhood. 

Instead, I would clutch her dupatta to my chest, 

Breathing in the scent of her perfume as I tried to rest. 

———

I remember my baba cooking dinner. 

He told me that food was an important part of our culture. 

On rainy days, he would make us pakorein and chai,

Telling us the stories of his childhood back home.

In moments like these, my father’s armour lifts, 

And I see the shimmer of a young boy who is yet to die. 

———

In every memory of my childhood, 

I feel the warm breeze of Pakistan. 

My parents have brought me up in a foreign land, 

But they have never let me forget my roots. 

My tongue may speak English, 

But my blood sings in Urdu. 

———

We may have left Pakistan, 

But our hearts are forever buried in that sacred land of the free,

Wrapped in the flag of the crescent and star,

Covered in the leaves of the deodar tree.

There’s a saying
In my mother tongue
a hụrụ m gị n'anya
a hụrụ m : meaning I see
gị n'anya: your eyes

To tell you a hụrụ m gị n'anya is to
Seek refuge under the realms of your retinas from
Worldy rages
To dance in the labyrinth that is your iris
For all I need is to dive into the depths of your brown
Hold me there in eternal maroon

To tell you a hụrụ m gị n'anya
Is to hide from the world with no semblance of responsibility
To hide under mattress and bedsheets
To build a forts as tall as the tallest sycamores
To nurture the inner breathes of your being
To hide
and to expose
The hidden parts of me scattered amongst mazes etched into my very being
Etched on to coins left behind for you to gather my riches and throw them away in wishing
wells
Etched into we

To tell you a hụrụ m gị n'anya is to
give you my stars and my moons
For you to hold a cacophony of my celestial thoughts
To Tell you a hụrụ m gị n'anya is for you to eternally fall into my being
To eternally fuse in to my soul
To let my lashes guard you from the rain
and the hailstones of life
For You always hated thunderstorms

To tell you a hụrụ m gị n'anya
Is too simply say
I love you

-Arịmoku