I am winding down from 40 years as a corporate and securities lawyer, with a mixture of non-profit board participation as well, pro bono activities in immigration law, mediation, working with at-risk youth, and, more recently, election protection work. At Carleton, I majored in economics and participated in three varsity sports, forming friendships that endure to this day, and after college, I played basketball and softball, coached youth sports, and ran in hundreds of races from 5Ks to marathons. Now I walk, hike, and stretch; dogs help immensely. And I write poetry.
After graduation, I served in the Peace Corps for two years in the Philippines, immersed in Ilokano and Tagalog daily. Regretting that I never became truly bilingual, I have been studying Spanish (and several other languages) on Duolingo for two years. It has helped me connect with clients from Latin America and Africa, including being able to rephrase questions when they could not comprehend the question the USCIS examiner was posing in English.
I’m also writing haiku poems, which, until I started on Twitter in 2010, were unknown to me. Under the name @minnesotahiker, I posted sporadically until I discovered the power and beauty of how a 17-syllable (5/7/5) haiku fit snugly within the original 140-character Twitter limit. I have tweeted a haiku daily (with a few days off for various reasons) for over five years.
3.14:
Forgetting the date
He arrives late to buy pie
Choices limited
I cheat because I usually give my haikus a whimsical title, which violates the syllable rule. I also violate the rule about nature most days. My theme depends on the #haikuchallenge word of the day, which is posted on Twitter at 0800 ET. The haiku may be about nature, exercise, politics, literature, geography, lunar new year, food, family, friends, sports, or even once a year for four hours the #superbowlhaiku.
Sometimes I allow the haiku to form the image. Sometimes I include a sketch: after my wife Annemarie and I took a class in bird drawing at the University of Minnesota Bell Museum several years ago, my love of haikus and drawing came together.
My wife, our children, and many of our friends now celebrate birthdays and other occasions, both joyous and somber, with haikus. Every day we are sharing with poetry.
— Thomas Lovett