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Bid for Freedom<\/strong><\/p>\n If I could gain the freedom of my mind, <\/p>\n <\/p>\n In 2016, Harriet Jae<\/strong> emigrated to Ghent, Belgium, where she is studying Dutch and recovering from a long illness. Previously she worked with refugees and as editor of a national refugee agency\u2019s magazine. Published in The Ofi Press<\/em>; long-listed for the Plough Prize in 2017.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Bid for Freedom If I could gain the freedom of my mind, my God! I\u2019d map its streets out like a town and then explore those alleyways that wind that never could be charted or pinned down. I\u2019d race full tilt to scale its highest towers then leaping off I\u2019d strut about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[138,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2019-poetry-picks","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19031"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19136,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19031\/revisions\/19136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nmy God! I\u2019d map its streets out like a town
\nand then explore those alleyways that wind
\nthat never could be charted or pinned down.
\nI\u2019d race full tilt to scale its highest towers
\nthen leaping off I\u2019d strut about in state,
\nI\u2019d whirl around its carousels for hours
\nthen lie down in its grass, stare up to space.
\nBut my mind\u2019s strange ground, I don\u2019t possess the key.
\nI\u2019m neither honoured guest, nor citizen.
\nMy cramped thoughts never did yet wander free;
\nthis citadel\u2019s their prison. Pity them.
\nAnd listen \u2013 then I\u2019ll not stay penned in long,
\nfor I\u2019ll outleap these bounds in outlaw song.<\/p>\n