Harbourwalk Poem W001

Having to win a small lottery –
To get a ticket to play the big lottery –
Love in Nova Scotia for me –
As an Asian male visible minority –
Compared to the Caucasian majority

04.29.18 – 05.13.18

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Copyright by Minh Tan on listed dated of completion.

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Notes to this poem…

This was the start of an accidental series which, at the time I posted it (July 29), could be projected to have over 500 poems by year’s end!

I took my tablet to walk the Halifax waterfront’s Harbourwalk portion on May 13th, taking the scenic route to get groceries at an Atlantic Superstore close to its far end. I hoped to write some poetry on the walk to make it more productive than just a walk to get groceries, while inspired by the ocean and open space of the harbour, and spend more time outdoors that wasn’t just a waste of time.

On this first walk, I not only completed a few unfinished poems, but also started and finished some during the walk. I stopped probably a half a dozen times to input my poetic thoughts, rather than walking and texting that I’m not fond of. I could have done it in those first few walks in May, when tourism season was barely getting started, but it would not have been feasible for most of the journey. Sitting down, I also took a chance to look around each time before and/or having my head looking at my tablet to enter information.

The experience was pleasant enough that I have been doing this walk 2-4 times a week since, when I’m not on vacation. I don’t always go to get groceries. Sometimes, I just need to stretch out my legs from hard running training. Other times, I just need to get out of the apartment, especially on some dreary days when I can go after the rain that kept me most of the day. At this point of posting, I am at 252 poems composed on such walks! I plan to only post 1 per day so as not to drive subscribers crazy with posts, though not always on consecutive days due to time commitment. I estimate by the end of it all, I will have enough poetry to post until the next decade! There’s pretty much only about 500 days until 2020, if you can believe that! 🙂

As for this poem, it’s an analogy of trying to date as a visible minority male in this damned conservative province I live in. From my research, about 6 in 7 women in my dating age range aren’t interested in Asians. I ran social experiments on match making sites with two profiles only differing by race, in 2007 when one could indicate certain races to be a deal breaker! You’d never be able to get that level of honesty interviewing people, or even getting them to do an online survey, but this was real life action that speaks in deafening volumes!

As a result, dating as an Asian male here like having to win a small lottery to find some women interested, before even getting a ticket for the big lottery… or rather the ultimate lottery, which is how I refer to love in one of my many quotes I have written over the years.

The W-series poems comprise mostly of haiku or tanka composed during walks I took on the portion of Halifax’s waterfront known as the Harbourwalk, in 2018, when the Seabridge was in place.

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