Tortured poet asks about love, in a way (2,2,5)
I believe the answer is:
so to speak
'in a way' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'tortured poet asks about love' is the wordplay.
'tortured' indicates anagramming the letters (I've seen this in other clues).
'about' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'love' becomes 'o' (love means zero in tennis).
'poet'+'asks'='poetasks'
'poetasks' is an anagram of 'sotspeak'.
'sotspeak' going around 'o' is 'SO TO SPEAK'.
(Other definitions for so to speak that I've seen before include "If one may use that expression" , "as one might say" , "In a way" .)