Patchwork Heart

   I've had the idea of a patchwork heart for many years now but didn't know how to put it in a poem exactly. I finally started working on just writing what I felt in prose in January and worked on it quite a bit to try and get it into a poem but things just didn't seem to work out. The words weren't right, the rhythm was wasn't there and the feeling wasn't being conveyed.

   Then forgot about it until a couple of days ago when I stumbled upon it again in my notes. Somehow this time it came together in a matter of a few hours. I really do like how it sounds. I'm tempted to expand it a little more but don't want to mess with it right now. It conveys what I want in a precise and succinct manner. I like that.
In a sense it's inspired to some extent by a sufi song written by Gulzar sung by Rekha Bhardwaj.

The lyrics in the closing stanza are:

राख से रूखी, कोयल से काली 
रात कटे ना हिज्राँवाली 
दिल सूफी ये था, हम चल दिए जहाँ ले चला 
तेरे इश्क में हम चल दिए.

Raakh se rukhi, koyal se kaali  

(Coarse and dry as ash, dark as the koyal bird)
Raat kate na hijrawaali          

(This night of separation is difficult)
Dil sofi yeh tha,

(But this is a Sufi heart)

Hum chal diye jahaan le chala.

(And I follow it wherever it may take me)
Tere ishq mein hum chal diye

(In your love I follow it)

And here is my poem in a similar vein.

Patchwork Heart

A patchwork heart lives on my sleeve
Beautiful in it's crooked way.
This patch work heart is painful
And I seem to have no say.

It's seams are ripped
with every fluttering beat
Every feeling seems so raw.
It's black and blue
and beaten up too
With many a beautiful flaw

The more it breaks
the more it holds
This patchwork heart it grows.
It hurts so often
my fears lose hold
As newer paths it shows.

It shelters within
a bright blue flame
That leads me to salvation.
But my patchwork heart
lights me on fire
And calls it my liberation.

--Megha
1st July 2014