The Art of Haiku: The Love Poet and Haiku Poetry

Fire, love's passion, cries -

Water, to cool the hot earth

And warm the cold air!

The love poet has an affinity for haiku poetry as an art because the love poet loves nature and the pure passion that nature's moment frequently inspires.

Originally, there were four elements that were understood to compose the physical universe, namely fire, water, earth and air. While they each can stand alone, they are linked together as one, by the power of love or by nature or nature's love.

Haiku poetry is an ancient form of Japanese poetry, written in seventeen moras or on. It is penned as three metrical phrases with five, seven and five onji or short syllables. It contains a kigo or a seasonal reference. It has a kireji or caesura which is a break, at the end of one of the three lines. As a whole, it is complete in itself and becomes a powerful statement about nature. Haiku poetry is not written in rhyme and is contained in three lines. Free verse haiku may be less structured. (1)

Love poetry has the same kind of fire and fiery passion triggered poetically, in the heart and mind of man, by nature's sudden or dramatic self-manifestations. Love poetry has its negative passions, just like nature, which often manifests its inherent and unpredictable, violence and fury.

Love poetry is a celebration of life, portraying the fullness of pure and impure passions. It may be exploited in the hearts and minds of man, but we always have to remember that any love poet is still a human being, subject to imperfection, even while he aspires to perfection.

"God is love." 

Pure, poetic perfection is found in the divine realm. Love poets, as exemplary poets, focusing on the theme of love, attempt to portray in mere human words, the divine elements of pure perfection that appear to surface as haiku poetry.

The haiku writer often pens his words, in what seems to be a state of wonder. They may be few in number and quite profound at times, like those found in poetry recognized as being poemic.

The poemic realm precedes the poetic realm. Haiku poetry may be more a part of the poemic realm, than the poetic realm, although it is part of the poetic realm, too. This may have to do with its brevity and profound expression, realized in a minimum number of words.

On the other hand, a love poet may find his or her inspiration in a piece of haiku poetry and expand upon it further and develop it into a full length, love poem. A prose writer might expand it further yet.

Love poets often write unique love poetry based upon the day to day, miraculous and wondrous phenomena of nature. Both the poemic and the poetic elements tend to surface in the writings of the love poet. Sometimes what is written appears to be relatively simple poetry, but at other times, it may become extremely complex, like nature itself.

There are variations of haiku poetry, found all over the world. That should not surprise anyone, as expressions of any kind of love poetry are world-wide phenomena. Wherever people are, they will be touched by the beauty of nature or its negative aspects. They will write about it, however they can.

Love poets write love poetry about what they love. Not all love poets write about love in a positive way or metaphorically with respect to nature, as portrayed in its robe of beauty. Love poets also write about the tragic elements of both love and nature.

But, love and hate are central in life's tenuous balance and they appear to be found in nature's realm, in conjunction with the fear expressed by animals. Fear initiates hatred and the desire to kill, even in human beings, whereas animals may kill for their own survival or for food. Joy and sorrow may be part of nature's realm, too. Think about robins feeding their young. There may be joy there and sorrow, if even one is lost.

All of these emotions may be considered as an inherent part of the art of love poetry, found under the guise of haiku as an art, even though we may not think about haiku this way. The four elements, fire, water, earth and air, reveal this to be true, at least metaphorically speaking, as the love poet paints with words, expressed in the form of haiku poetry.

(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiku http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiku