St. Thomas business law students have written a book of haiku that is being sold in the St. Thomas bookstore.

“While it may appear at first impression that collegiate business students have little connection with poetry, the offerings in this book show a collection of creative people who write about contemplative and humorous themes through the haiku form,” said John Del Vecchio, professor of the class.

The book “29 Haikus” is the work of the 29 business students in Marketing Law 490. The students have formed a partnership called The 490 Haiku Collective.

“We’ve been working on this [haiku book] since the first day of class,” senior Laura Farley said. “When I was told by our professor we were actually going to write this [book], I was surprised. But it’s been cool and interesting.”

Each haiku is unique, Farley said.

“Mine was about the fall,” she said. “I called it Pumpkin Spice.”

Junior Kerstin Johnson wrote a haiku about how people fear change but want adventure and new experiences.

“I enjoy and read poetry, so it was nice to use a more creative side in a business class,” she said.

The students did not receive a grade for writing a haiku and had the choice to participate in this unique class activity.

Book brings marketing and legal principles to life

The purpose of creating and manufacturing this book was to bring marketing and legal principles to life, Del Vecchio said.

Senior Theodore Dedon said he has never had a professor ask him to do anything like this before.

“Not only did we write haikus, but we made a business that we created in which everyone was involved and [Del Vecchio] oversaw,” Dedon said. “It’s getting the idea across that you can take something simple as a haiku book and make it into a business.”

The class taught students about contract law and patent law. Students applied the concepts of protecting and marketing the things they created through the process of creating and selling the haiku book, Dedon said.

Nearly 100 made

The class made about 100 haiku books, Farley said.

“We approached the St. Thomas bookstore and asked if we could sell [the books], and the bookstore did not have a problem [with it],” Farley said.

Dedon said not many books have been sold yet.

“We are currently giving out the books to various places to be sold,” he said. “In the business office we are going to put books aside to be given to charity or to be sold at a discount.”

The book can be purchased at the St. Thomas bookstore for $3.50. Out of the $3.50, $2.80 will be given back to The 490 Haiku Collective.

“I think that we’ll eventually decide it can all go to charity,” Dedon said. “It will be like a total of $100 that could be possibly made. So this is not a huge endeavor by any means.”

Farley said most of the work for the haiku book was done outside of class, aside from binding the books, which the students did during one of the class periods.

Farley said Del Vecchio paid about $100 to have the books printed and bound.

“[Del Vecchio’s] the driving force behind us,” Farley said.

Rebekah Frank can be reached at rfrank@stthomas.edu