Linda Vielie, who died in December, lived amid the architecture and atmosphere that inspired her haiku. A Syracuse native, she had lived on the city's south and west sides, and was living downtown, in YMCA's senior apartments, when she learned about the Poster Project. It was the summer of 2003.

Another participant in the Poster Project, Martin Walls, was teaching a haiku class at the YMCA's Downtown Writers' Center. Vielie had studied painting, enjoyed literature and poetry, and was interested in the arts of Asia. She was a natural for Wall's class.

That year Vielie's daughter, Vanderie, came home from a master's degree program to spend the summer with her mother for the first time in years. “Basically what inspired her was the little area right around where we were living,” Vanderie recalls. “We really enjoyed it. That was such a special summer we had, being downtown.”