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Originally published 11\/04\/2022<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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By J. Alexandria<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Cheap, creased cotton. White faded grey over years,<\/p>\n\n\n\n its loose embrace greets me like an old friend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Crinkling cloth, zips rasp music to my ears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A strip of black, with my rank on the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Balanced on the grubby floor. As one we bend,<\/p>\n\n\n\n chamber. Strike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These are clothes for striking. But they can lend<\/p>\n\n\n\n a flexible structure. Now I can fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The words spill out, turning to smudges, smears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I do not know where any lines should end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n No rhymes, no framework, paralysed by fear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Determined, scratching, crumpling, I intend<\/p>\n\n\n\n to hem in my pen. Ballade. A new friend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As one we bend, chamber, strike through, rhyme, redraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is a form that restrains. It can lend<\/p>\n\n\n\n a flexible structure. Now I can write.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These twin constraints are a means to an end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not ruling, but focusing in the right<\/p>\n\n\n\n direction. Not dictators, instead friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Flexible structures. For me, it feels right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (After all, a full ballade has three eight-line stanzas,<\/p>\n\n\n\n and a dobok can make a great set of pyjamas.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n About this piece<\/strong> in the author’s words<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n As you may be able to tell, I’m more of a prose person than a poet. This poem was borne out of my frustration around this, as, you know, I’m a Creative Writing student, I kinda need to be able to write poetry. I eventually tried to approach it through the lens of something I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m actually good at, Taekwondo, realising that a lack of focus was tripping me up. In the same way that a dobok, the standard training uniform for Taekwondo, is a tool that shapes the way you move and fight, I found that employing poetic forms (in this case, ballade) similarly shaped and focused my writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n About the poet<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n J. Alexandria is a sci-fi and fantasy author who enjoys writing about themes of identity and powerlessness, and also how cool it is when large things explode. She can be contacted by email at j.alexandria.writer@gmail.com or by twitter @JAlexandria69.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Cheap, creased cotton. White faded grey over years,<\/p>\n its loose embrace greets me like an old friend.<\/p>\n Crinkling cloth, zips rasp music to my ears.<\/p>\n A strip of black, with my rank on the end.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.northumbria.ac.uk\/onedgecreativearts\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.northumbria.ac.uk\/onedgecreativearts\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.northumbria.ac.uk\/onedgecreativearts\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.northumbria.ac.uk\/onedgecreativearts\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.northumbria.ac.uk\/onedgecreativearts\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=194"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/research.northumbria.ac.uk\/onedgecreativearts\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1515,"href":"https:\/\/research.northumbria.ac.uk\/onedgecreativearts\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194\/revisions\/1515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.northumbria.ac.uk\/onedgecreativearts\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.northumbria.ac.uk\/onedgecreativearts\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.northumbria.ac.uk\/onedgecreativearts\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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