I am fighting for love.
In my solitude,
inner battles rage –
and still no peace to be had.
Quietly throughout my youth,
I fought for love
in childlike innocence.
It was a dive into the unknown.
After twenty years,
thirty years, fighting –
always fighting for love –
love lies asunder.
And I forget
how to fight for love:
teetering precariously
I disguise myself.
With time
this heart in me,
turned towards him,
will stop fighting for love.
And lovingly fight my
invisible opponents –
eradicating
heart-hardening lies.
Soon the war will be over.
This heart in me,
tender yet clumsy,
not fighting, just loved.
This is a patchwork poem drawing on lines from the following poems
jillypoet – Guts
Mariacristina – Song of Knitting
paisley-gift of youth
gautami tripathy – endless possibilities
writerwoman – teetering precariously
(Sorry Scott and Lissa, yours came in after I wrote this!)
For more information on patchwork poems and other poems made from the same source material, see this post on the Patchwork poetry blog.
This is my first attempt at a patchwork poem, so all feedback gratefully received. It’s very interesting to see what phrases jump out and how they shape themselves into a different story. It’s also interesting how it partly expresses my thoughts but at the same time isn’t quite my voice – I’ll be intrigued to see what others come up with from the same material!
I’ve tried to stick to the rule of using whole lines and changing as little as possible. But I couldn’t resist taking one half-line from “endless possibilities” – the whole line wouldn’t have fitted either in sense or length! The poem structured itself around the line on fighting for love, which I made slightly different each time I used it.
Words that sing 
well i think you did an absolutely awesome job… i have to say of all the poems submitted for use this week,, including mine,, i liked yours the best… both pieces are wonderful….
Thanks Paisley! As you may have guessed from the number of lines I used from it, I really liked your poem too, and found some very thought-provoking ideas. The “heart-hardening lies” line seems to have been used in all the versions I’ve seen so far, and no wonder – a very powerful idea.
Lirone,
I liked many of the images from your original, which I put into my poem about war. Kind of interesting, isn’t it?
You did a great job with all the color coding- a visual reminder that this is a patchwork poem.
I’m curious as to how this poem doesn’t reflect your own feelings, or what you wanted to say. Is it because you in truth are resigned to the loss of your love, and are grieving?
Your poem, and the ones I’ve read from paisley, which are many, have a similar feeling or tone- a kind of passionate sadness, mixed with beauty.
It is odd that we all pick almost the same lines but it’s great to see the varying results.
I really like your result. Even if this doesn’t reflect your own feelings, I think it is still express in such a wonderful way. I agree with mariacristina – there is a mix of sadness and beauty in this poem.
The odd thing is that it both does and doesn’t reflect my own feelings. These are very live issues for me, which is why I was drawn to them – the idea of love, of fighting, of lies being an obstacle to love. And yet there’s something that’s just not the way I see things.
It’s something to do with the idea that fighting for love is a contradiction… if you fight too hard, you destroy what you’re fighting for. And yet a good relationship is worth fighting for….
My ex accused me of trying to cling on, of being needy for love, and destroying our relationship by being dishonest. Whereas I felt I was being honest, and I was fighting because I wanted to keep our relationship alive rather because I needed him or it.
And sometimes when I read the poem, it’s as if the poem describes how he would tell my story, rather than the way I would!
Does that make any sense?
This was a lovely way to combine the lines. Especially loved:
This heart in me,
tender yet clumsy,
I like the colours which reinforce, merge and stand out . It works for me. You patched it very well. Thanks.
I too wrote for love, which I seldom do:
jumping from the cliff to prove my love?
What a great job you did pulling lines that worked together, made sense, and evoked emotion. As I read it, I kept thinking, “of course! those lines fit perfectly together! why didn’t i see that?”
That’s one thing I love about patchwork poetry, how everyone sees different meaning in a poem, different strengths in different lines.
I also think it’s very cool that this poem expresses something that someone else would say–kind of a personna poem.
Very true, the idea of fighting for love as an oxymoron. Fighting and love seem so opposite, yet they co-exist all the time. I still can’t figure that one out!
Fellow patchworkers, thanks for your encouraging words!
I have to say it is a lot of fun to collaborate this way – it really makes you think about your word choices in a different way!
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