Love asks not, just gives,
needs no symmetry to thrive,
yielding selflessly.
Some love unrequited aches.
Was it demand clothed as gift?
#tanka (5-7-5-7-7 #haiku #senryu) #poem #ShortPoem #SmallPoem #love #philosophy #symmetry #asymmetry #balance #acceptance
Humans seem obsessed with symmetry in relationships. In an egalitarian world full of people differing widely in station and status, I wonder if that is healthy.
I watch so much TV and movies in which people are sad or chided for loving those who do not love them back. Why not declare love as a success in itself and leave it at that?
Often one can repair a relationship by promising to love fewer people. Is a world with less love really to be sought? Is there not another way to solve this problem?
I don't mean this as a complete essay on the matter, only to hint better at some of the thoughts behind the poem. I don't really understand why unrequited love veritably implies sadness and often even yields a withdrawal of love.
Love conditioned on love back seems so transactional, hardly a gift, more akin to a purchase, often ridden with pressure. Can that really be the best love has to offer?
(And, yes, I understand there are many kinds of love. It's too big a topic for one small writing. Approximation, summary, and arbitrariness are pretty much the price of admission to discussion of human nature.)
