I am Fighting

I wrote here a couple of days ago about my aversion to using war metaphor to describe cancer. Judging from the number of comments, retweets and blog stats this is an issue that clearly resonates with a lot of people, both those who have/have had cancer and those who have not.

Thank you to all of you who have retweeted my post and got in touch via Twitter.

I  like a discursive argument as much as the next person. But sometimes the thing needs saying in the shape of a story or a song. This is what I have tried to do with the poem ‘I am Fighting’, below.

When my chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatments for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma finally came to an end in 2006 I slowly began to re-engage with reading and writing poetry again, not having been able to concentrate on more than the sports pages for six months.

Until I had and was treated for cancer I had unconsciously accepted the war metaphor so readily used in the culture. After six months of encouragement to ‘fight’ the disease my feelings changed.

I wrote ‘I am Fighting’ in the first batch of poems after I was officially told I was better. You can find it in my book of poems, Riddance, at the front of this website, and also at Worple Press, my publishers.

I am Fighting

 

I am fighting

we are talking

in a room

across a table

 

You are waiting

I am fighting

down a corridor

in an armchair

 

You are reading

in a ward

across the bed

where I am fighting

 

I am sleeping

imagining dreaming

flying running

I am fighting

 

I am waking

stretching yawning

on the sofa

you are crying

 

We are walking

through a doorway

I am sitting

now I’m lying

 

I am sleeping

you are sitting

we are waiting

I am fighting