CC138 – AD MAIORA NATUS SUM

I used to drive to Oxford, before I met MO, sketch by the Thames and write poems in the Eagle and Child (Baby and the Bird), stay over at a cheap hotel with a lovely landlady. I was walking down the high street and there was a beggar/street artist who had written ‘A little change would be wonderful, if not you have a great day’. I said to him: ‘You are in one of the most academic cities in the world, have you tried other phrases?’ He said like what? AD MAIORA NATUS SUM. He said what does that mean? I am born to better things. I revisited Oxford a month later, and there it was in chalk on the pavement. He saw me and said I need to buy you a drink. Since writing that I have earnt enough to get me off the streets and into my first place, I now have a girlfriend and dog and it is all down to that saying. People are giving me £5 notes, they think I am a fallen scholar, some American guy gave me £20. I earn a good living from meeting you.   The power of words!

Available only as A3 print.