Haiku in the Queue

Entertaining Ferry Riders with Haiku

The approach to Vashon’s north-end ferry pier is familiar to every islander who travels to Seattle via the Fauntleroy ferry, and so is the line of cars waiting to board that snakes down the hill toward the water. Around 2003, Kajira Wyn Berry, a calligrapher and member of Vashon’s “Mondays at Three” haiku group, had the idea of offering haiku to the bored drivers in line as they worked their way down the hill toward the ferry. Inspired by the old Burma-Shave signs along U.S. highways, Kaj imagined presenting the haiku as three separate panel signboards—one for each line—spread out a short distance apart along the roadside approaching the dock. The project, known as “Hiway Haiku,” was an instant hit and Kaj, partnering with her good friend and artist Hita von Mende, continued to select and letter the haiku until her death in November of 2021. At that point, Mike Feinstein and his wife Gerry took over the project—now known as “Haiku in the Queue”—and have continued what has become a Vashon tradition. They install new haiku regularly and feature poems written mostly by members of the “Mondays at Three” group, interspersed with classics from poets such as Bashō, Buson, Issa, and Shiki. Their old friend Suzanne Moore, a world-class book and lettering artist, offered to paint the haiku on the signboards. The following is a sampling of past haiku, in sections for Haiku in the Queue, Japanese Masters, and then older photos from Hiway Haiku days.

Haiku in the Queue

by Helen Russell

by Jean Ameluxen

by Michael Feinstein

by Kathryn True

by Ron Simons

by Jill Andrews

by Tom Conway

by B. Candy Gamble

by Jean Ameluxen

by Jill Andrews

by Chris Bollweg

by John Browne

by Barbara Chasan

by Gerry Feinstein

by Shirley Ferris

by Ron Simons

by Ann Spiers

Japanese Masters

by Buson

by Shiki

by Shiko

by Shiki

by Issa

by Tōmei

Hiway Haiku

What are Hiway Haiku?

On Vashon Island, Washington, a long hill leads down to the north-end ferry that takes us into Seattle. Even though there is truly no advantage to racing down that hill, cars routinely scream down it, unable to stop at the crosswalk. My friend Hita von Mende and I were watching this habitual stream of traffic one day, as we waited to cross the road, and wondered what could possibly be done to slow everyone’s mad dash to wait in line.

We remembered the old Burma Shave triplicate signs and how much fun it was to slow down to read them. Well, why not? We asked ourselves. And thus Hiway Haiku was born—three weatherproof signs spaced down the hill, with lines of a haiku calligraphed in historical alphabets, large enough to be read from a car.

Vashon also has a group of poets who have been meeting the first Monday of every month at three o’clock for many years to read and discuss haiku. For more than five years, I have been using their homegrown haiku, plus some classic ones, to calligraph and post, roughly every three weeks. Some of the painted calligraphy becomes almost unreadable when battered by winter wind and rain.

Hiway Haiku do not have an agenda, do not try to sell or convince passersby of anything, and do not necessarily count in a 5-7-5 form. They are only a light-hearted moment in a busy day. A few from the past year are here on the walls.

Kaj Wyn Berry

(text from a Hiway Haiku display commissioned for the 2011 Haiku North America conference in Seattle, Washington)

(see a story in the Beachcomber about Kaj Wyn Berry’s passing)

Part of the Hiway Haiku display at the 2011 Haiku North North America conference in Seattle, Washington (in the photo is a poem by Ce Rosenow)

by Mike Feinstein

Commemoration for Helen Russell’s 99th birthday in 2008

by Kaj Wyn Berry

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