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The Immovable Stance by Helen Ivory
Buy the book here: https://www.aftershockreview.com/product-page/issue-1-the-aftershock-review
Listen to our Daily Aftershock Podcast here: https://aftershockpoetry.substack.com/s/the-daily-aftershock-writing-prompt
A Note from the Editor:
Here, we see how memory lands like a backfist. The Immovable Stance offers no neat redemption arc, only the weight of a father's words and the off-kilter balance of inherited harm. Shotokan Karate’s fudo-dachi becomes more than a posture here: it’s the grim theatre of masculinity, of who gets to stay rooted and who is scattered. But it’s also about patriarchal unravelling, and how badness echoes through again and again.
– Max Wallis
The Aftershock Review is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
The Immovable Stance
by Helen Ivory | poet | artist
Shotokan Karate: fudo-dachi
You'd taken my father to the pub and got him drunk on JD. He was
saying how you reminded him of his father and how he could do
karate. He told you l'd always been a slag. He used to drive my sister
to karate and watch from the side of the hall.
A slag is a coarse or dissipated girl or woman; dissipation means to
scatter in various directions; disperse; dispel, and in the same
dictionary it says that a parent is a protector or guardian.
I can't help but jump in and speak up for my twenty-two-year-old
self; I'd been in what, three relationships? My abiding memory of
him is in your kitchen doing a boozed-up version of the Immovable stance.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit aftershockpoetry.substack.com/subscribe
Helen Ivory is a poet and visual artist. She edits IS&T and teaches for Arvon. Her six Bloodaxe collections include Waiting for Bluebeard, which centres on domestic abuse, and Constructing a Witch (2024), which is a PBS Winter Recommendation. She won a Cholmondeley Award from the Society of Authors in 2024.
Thanks for reading The Aftershock Review! This post is public so feel free to share it.
The Aftershock Review is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit aftershockpoetry.substack.com/subscribe
View all episodes
By Max Wallis' Daily Aftershock Writing Prompts (The Aftershock Review)Buy the book here: https://www.aftershockreview.com/product-page/issue-1-the-aftershock-review
Listen to our Daily Aftershock Podcast here: https://aftershockpoetry.substack.com/s/the-daily-aftershock-writing-prompt
A Note from the Editor:
Here, we see how memory lands like a backfist. The Immovable Stance offers no neat redemption arc, only the weight of a father's words and the off-kilter balance of inherited harm. Shotokan Karate’s fudo-dachi becomes more than a posture here: it’s the grim theatre of masculinity, of who gets to stay rooted and who is scattered. But it’s also about patriarchal unravelling, and how badness echoes through again and again.
– Max Wallis
The Aftershock Review is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
The Immovable Stance
by Helen Ivory | poet | artist
Shotokan Karate: fudo-dachi
You'd taken my father to the pub and got him drunk on JD. He was
saying how you reminded him of his father and how he could do
karate. He told you l'd always been a slag. He used to drive my sister
to karate and watch from the side of the hall.
A slag is a coarse or dissipated girl or woman; dissipation means to
scatter in various directions; disperse; dispel, and in the same
dictionary it says that a parent is a protector or guardian.
I can't help but jump in and speak up for my twenty-two-year-old
self; I'd been in what, three relationships? My abiding memory of
him is in your kitchen doing a boozed-up version of the Immovable stance.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit aftershockpoetry.substack.com/subscribe
Helen Ivory is a poet and visual artist. She edits IS&T and teaches for Arvon. Her six Bloodaxe collections include Waiting for Bluebeard, which centres on domestic abuse, and Constructing a Witch (2024), which is a PBS Winter Recommendation. She won a Cholmondeley Award from the Society of Authors in 2024.
Thanks for reading The Aftershock Review! This post is public so feel free to share it.
The Aftershock Review is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit aftershockpoetry.substack.com/subscribe