In a very divisive, violent world, we could all use more peace, love and understanding, and Rock Island’s Rita Melissano is just the person to help provide them.
The passionate Italian has lived in Rock Island since 1988 and in her historic home in a forest since 2010. The former director of the holistic Satva Center in Rock Island and Trinity Enrichment Center in Davenport, among her many roles, Melissano has served the community as a psychologist, marriage and family therapist, holistic psychotherapist, mindfulness teacher and trainer, meditation teacher, Reiki master teacher and as an ordained minister.
After four years based in southern California, she returned to her beautiful home in Rock Island in 2020, and since then has added “poet” to her growing resume. A first-time author, Melissano’s two books of poetry were both released (through Archway Publishing, a division of Simon & Schuster) on January 11, 2026.
Part of her newly-created “The Way of Love” series, they are:
- “AIKU The Way of Love: a story told in haiku,” a true story unfolding through an alchemy of love.
- “The Way of Love: a collection of tanka,” a tribute to love, a mindful and heart-centered life, in oneness with self, others and creation.
On Christmas Day, Melissano got good news and the gift of a 2025 Touchstone Nomination from the UK, for a poem just in time to be recorded in that haiku book.
The third volume in her series will debut at the end of this year.
“The Way of Love” series combines her passion for poetry with her commitment to raise consciousness, promote healing and mindful living, and transmute suffering through the spiritual alchemy of love. “Walking The Way is becoming who we are, aware and awakened in the place we are destined to be in this life: our heart,” Melissano says.
She has been a featured reader in poetry events, her poems published in national and international poetry journals, anthologies, and featured on websites and podcasts. She is the recipient of the Honorable Mention award of the Mt. Fuji Taisho Tanka Contest 2024.
A clinical psychologist from Italy, Melissano obtained her doctorate in marriage and family therapy from Brigham Young University (Utah), feeling at home in international settings. She is a world traveler who speaks several languages and has studied all the major ancient spiritual traditions and cultures.
She lives in a forest overlooking the Mississippi River which inspires her writing, mindfulness practice, teachings, and photography.
“It’s like everything touches me in a way, in a much more profound way than before,” Melissano said in a recent interview. “In the way of love, we are all eternal students, for love is the only master.”
In the author’s own words, “The Way of Love” is “the most radical revolution that only the heart can lead. At this incredible time in human history, The Way of Love is the energetic template for a new evolutionary wave, the path to the unconditional embrace of the self with the beloved, oneness with all creation, the true source of healing and beauty, is…living poetry and beyond,” Melissano says.
Haiku and tanka
She has written her two books each in the haiku and tanka formal Japanese traditions.
Haiku is a Japanese form of poetry – the word “hai” means short, simple, and “ku” means poem. So haiku is usually a short, three-line poem, Melissano explained.
“Generally speaking, the haiku captured the moment, the image, the experience of one moment,” she said. “That's why it's part of the Zen tradition. It's being in the moment, in the present, and then your mind in one instant captures a particular image or a particular feeling and then expresses it in poetry.”
Melissano has written forever, but in haiku form in the past five years.
“It’s such a passion that I literally write in my dream at night and in the middle of the night, at 3 o' clock in the morning, I have to turn on the light because haiku is coming out and wants to be written,” she said. An example of her haiku is –
walking barefoot
a thousand times
the sand remembers us
Melissano called the book “AIKU” without the “h” since that’s how she pronounced it, and in fact, in Japanese, “ai” means love.
A Japanese artist and poet, in reviewing the new book, wrote: “Rita has dared to transform a collection of haiku into a book of aiku (= love poems). In her own unique voice, the storyteller in her pulls us into a personal journey that flows at times in a crescendo, at times only with a whisper, but like a drum, its rhythm is relentlessly attuned to her heartbeat.”
A “love haiku” book is “a rare gem in micropoetry,” as stated in the book’s prologue. “A long love haiku book is even more special. A long love haiku book given voice by a single author, as compared to a collective of poets, makes it one-of-a-kind. In addition, the author tells her personal love story, in the language of haiku.”
Each poem and image expresses and defines some of the unique moments and experiences unfolding in an extraordinary storyline, she said. The arc of narrative created with each haiku is designed to move the reader along a journey of pure love, deep transformation and spiritual alchemy.
Tanka poetry is a more ancient Japanese tradition, also short poems, typically five lines long. Whereas haiku usually uses short, long, short verses; tanka has five lines -- short, long, short, long, long, Melissano said.
She’s only written in tanka format for about three years, and specifies that those poems sometimes incorporate a twist in the last lines.
“There is a juxtaposition, like in a haiku,” Melissano said. “It seems like there is that shift, that element of surprise.”
The tanka collection also is in the theme of love. Here is an example of her tanka –
that first sip of coffee...
kissing the lips
of a new day
sun and moon
moving closer
“It's like essentially timeless love letters or love stories,” her reviewer wrote. “Often these letters are addressed to her beloved lover. Others are written to the universe affirming that the realm of nature call us to a love of life and the mysteries beyond this tanka, all echoes of your voice, my lover are romantic notes as well as profound insights in the recognition of beauty flowing through everyday moments shared in grace.”
The new tanka collection is a lyrical journey of remembrance, the unfolding of key moments in true love relationships as lived by the author, seen through her eyes at times with joy, longing, passion, at times in solitude, separation, reflection, but always embodying a love whose purity and depth meets the way of the extraordinary, that book prologue states.
“Together or apart, those special memories unfold not through chronological stories of soulmates searching for each other, but through that permanent invisible thread of love uniting them and connecting them with the cosmic realm,” she said. “That thread is endlessly re-created, redesigned, interwoven into every precious moment and aspect of their existence, in an everlasting love story claiming nothing exists outside of Love.”
The book celebrates the return of The Way, the most radical revolution that only the heart can lead. The Way of Love is living poetry, walking the path of healing, light and beauty, becoming one with the self and the beloved, in unity with all creation.
“And so, this is not just a poetry book or both or this is not just a story, a love story. And that love stories never end because they are in you and then transform you,” Melissano said. “But it's not just a love story, it is an expression of The Way of Love. There is a message. It's not just poetry, it's living poetry. And it's really, like I said in here, it's about being love, not just loving, but being love, becoming love through that alchemy.”
“There is an exchange that is infinite. And it's an exchange of love and the essence really of love. So the tanka collection is more than a lyrical journey of remembrance, the unfolding of key moments in true love relationship.”
“Love at first sight” means connection through spirits and souls even before two people have met physically.
“So in spirit and in the essence of love, in truth there is no difference between me and you. There is no separation between us,” the poet said. “So together or apart, those special memories unfold not through chronological stories. It’s through that permanent, invisible thread of love uniting them and connecting them with the cosmic realm all the way.”
“That thread is endlessly recreated, redesigned, interwoven into every precious moment and aspect of their existence in an everlasting love story, claiming nothing exists outside of love,” the prologue says.
“The way of love is living poetry, walking the path of healing,” she said. “The alchemy of love is healing. I have experienced that light and beauty. It's beauty, the essence of beauty. Becoming one with the self and the beloved, the lover, but in unity together with all creation. And it's like St. Francis who used to say, brother sun and sister moon, because everything is alive and everything is love, and everything speaks and listens to our thoughts, to our feelings, to our actions and gestures. So in unity with all creation, ultimately, the way of love is being love.”
“Catholic” in its literal sense
While Melissano was raised Roman Catholic, she considers herself in the Greek etymology of the word “catholic” (lower-case c), meaning universal. “I am universal because I embrace all major spiritual traditions,” she said. “Because again, at the bottom of all this, there is the light that is emanated by love and a life that is heart centered.”
Religion means to connect in unity, but too often religions have been used to divide and conquer, often with violence.
“Institutionalized religions have completely violated that meaning,” Melissano said. “That's why I speak of spirituality and spiritual path, because it is universal and all inclusive. It's the result of an alchemy of love.
“Jesus himself never had in mind to create an institutionalized religion,” she said. “He never meant to create a church. His essential teaching is living life at the purest and highest vibrational level possible. That is the embodiment of love and truth.”
The author is almost daily engaged in poetry groups via Zoom, starting during the pandemic, to connect with poets from all over the world writing, reading, exchange feedback on each other’s work. She is also a photographer and her photos are often shared to inspire more poetry writing.
For her new books, she will do a book reading and signing on Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026, at 4 p.m. at the Rock Island Public Library, 401 19th St., in the second floor Community Room.
Feb. 4 is important for Melissano because it’s not only her birthday, but the Spring Grand Ceremony (New Year) in Japan.
“When I was born on February 4, it snowed in southern Italy, where they didn’t even know what snow was. It was an extraordinary event,” she said. “Everything stopped because suddenly there was a half meter of snow on the ground!”
“This is really about my life and my rebirth,” Melissano said of her books. “It will be my joy to read on February 4th and share all this and my journey and how all that, many times my painful journey has given me the opportunity to let go, transform the most excruciating pain and create much beauty, deeper love and sharing with many other people that care to connect with something that is miraculous in itself. It's the impossible becoming possible. And so beautiful to share.”
She said she was indeed named after the Catholic Saint Rita, the patron saint of impossible causes. Her books are available at Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com, on Archway Publishing and as e-books.
To know more about the author’s rich background, dive into the visual, literary, auditory and spiritual experience offered on her website, www.thewayof.love, while her official author’s website is upcoming.
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