Writing romance poetry is like having a love affair with your soul. For the hopelessly romantic like myself, writing romance poetry is like a swim in a warm scented pool on a tropical isle, surrounded by leafy palms swaying in the breeze. An over dramatization perhaps, but you get my point.

Romantic poetry was some of very first verse, I composed, because when I first started writing poetry it is what I needed to get through a very difficult emotional period in my life. I drew my inspiration for my poetry (and continue to) from things most non-poets would never look at or think twice about. It could be the title of a song, a certain sound, a simple phrase, a falling snowflake, a beautiful woman, or a sudden rain shower. For example, after hearing the song 4 Seasons of Loneliness, from the Boyz II Men CD Evolution, I wrote the following poem called Four Seasons of Love & Romance:

Romance is the seed of friendship,
Growing far beneath the winter snow
Slowly, carefully, building trust and honesty,
Intimacy, warmness, and sharing.

Waiting for the spring thaw
And its soothing rain of happiness
In order to blossom into the
Fullness and beauty of love, desire, lust, and passion.

Flourishing and maturing in the summer sun,
It grows, filling the expanse
Of empty hearts and once barren souls
With warmness and contentment heretofore unknown.

And aging gracefully in autumn’s coolness and turning of the leaves.
Souls and hearts connected beating as one,
Will forever be joined in joyful song,
And endless dance.
Such are the four seasons of love and romance…

Copyright 1997 Vincent E Martin, All Rights Reserved

The poem was a milestone for me, and represented how I dreamed romance and love should be between two people; warm, caring, sharing, and endless adventure that lasted a lifetime. And over time it matures from lust, to love, to a warm and lasting friendship.

For my first year of actively writing poetry, romance and love were my central theme. Though at times I wrote about sorrow and heartbreak, romantic poetry dominated.

From poetry I moved my creative romantic juices to Sonnets, from which I took inspiration from the master himself, William Shakespeare. There is nothing wrong emulating the style of other poets, in fact it is encouraged. Study the masters learn from them and then infuse their styles with your own. I have moved from there to writing in the Haiku form. I love haiku because it challenges the creative mind like no other form of poetry.

In closing I would like to impart that one should never be afraid to explore the soul and embrace in verse what you might find. You might find that what you are brings a tear to another’s most adoring eye.

Why poetry? I think a better question might be, why not poetry? Poetry more than any other literary form—in my opinion—reaches down inside a person and exposes raw emotions. Poetry touches the heart and soul and relays to the mind feelings and thoughts: anger and happiness, joy and gladness, love and sadness, why and why not, all bubbling up to the fore to be transcribed onto parchment in black ink. Poetry is the elixir that cures the wounded soul of its creator, pumps new lifeblood into his or her heart, and gladdens the soul. Poetry mends the tattered remnants of the ripped apart inner being that makes us who we are, and who we wish to be.

For the reader, good poetry melts; it can promote a smile, a knowing nod, a clearer understanding, a thoughtful introspection, a heartfelt sigh, or cause tears to flow from the emotional eye. A poem should be more than just simple words, or cleaver rhymes to the reader, for each will take away his or her own meaning, and understanding of the poem. A poet gives onto the reader a piece of himself with every poem; with every word written, with every phrase coined, and with every stanza dropped, a broader understanding of the author’s soul emerges.

For me poetry has meant all of these things and so much more. Both as a reader and writer of the spoken verse, I have experienced the magic, mystery and sheer beauty of poetry. It has touched me, moved me, pleased me, gladdened me, and brought tears to my eyes. From William Shakespeare to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, from Langston Hughes to Ralph Waldo Emerson, from Emily Dickinson to Alfred Tennyson, from Robert Frost to Pablo Narada, I have read them all and learned, ingested every word and been moved, climbed inside their minds, and have grown. And I have come to understand the profound richness and beauty of their beings.

So go ahead light a fire in the hearth, pour a glass of cool wine and find a comfortable chair. Grab a master from the shelf, sit down, read a poem or two, or three and many more and gain a broader understanding of the human condition, the human mind, heart, and soul at its very best.