earth, air, fire and water poets

It was a strange zone to be in, last night, at the reading. Of the seven poets reading, five were "earth" poets. Poets grounded in imagism, the presentation of the physical world around them. Mountains, trees, news stories, an old car, the house they grew up in...

I do not dislike "earth" poets, but being a "fire" poet myself, I prefer a different element, I am most comfortable in that element. Fire poets write of the heart, emotions, the primary colours of the human psyche - love, fear, rage. Our palette is rooted in the real world, but it is more how that world makes us feel than how it feels to our senses.

Fire poets make great lovers and lousy neighbors.

And what of "air" and "water"? The air poets are the spiritual and speculative poets. They write of divine inspiration. I dabble, a fair bit, in that element, in my alchemies, but it feels grey to me, although there are some masterful poets of that ilk.

Water poets are the natural order poets, they commune with nature and, while their poetry bears a passing resemblance to the earth poets, it is only like air is to fire, some vague overlap of metaphor.

An earth poet looks upon a house on a hill and speaks of the house. The air poet speaks of the faith of those who built it, and their familial bonds. The water poet would talk of the trees and the sky and the animals dwelling in the trees. The fire poet would speak of the emotions invoked by the image.

The earth poet takes a picture with words of the house, for posterity. The water poet collects pinecones and fewmets. The air poet takes a family portrait. The fire poet...ah, what does the fire poet do?

He writes their diaries...and their amotations.