When Rebecca Kaiser Gibson got an email from Becky Dennison Sakellariou seeking another poem for the Toadstool Bookshop wall, she responded immediately.
Gibson has always been an advocate for making poetry more present in people’s lives and the chance to add another banner to the brick that faces Twelve Pine was one she couldn’t pass up. And like when Sakellariou approached him, Toadstool owner Willard Williams was on board.
“He’s such a strong community supporter,” Gibson said.
On Tuesday, Gibson’s poem “Or Part Of” was installed next to the one that Sakellariou had hung in July. It’s part of a greater project that Sakellariou envisioned when she got the go ahead to create a banner with her “Her Landscapes” for the Toadstool wall.
Gibson, who lives in Marlborough, began the steps to create her banner last month and the project came together quickly. She worked with her nephew, who created her website and lives in Kazakhstan, to create the design for what people can now see as they walk through downtown Peterborough.
“We went back and forth a lot,” Gibson said.
The first design included the color orange, but Gibson felt that a cluster of green trees would work well for her poem that talks of strolling through the forest. She also wanted to incorporate green because it picks up the colors of the murals that are a feature on the wall.
The installation was done by Jeff Zagwyn, owner of Zagwyn Construction, and Chryss Arsenault. The connection was by happenstance, as one day Gibson was looking at the wall and Sakellariou’s poem and got to talking with Zagwyn.
“I said do you know how I’d attach this to the wall, and he said I do,” Gibson said.
It took about a half hour to drill into the bricks and secure the banner, which Gibson hopes is just the latest poem in a series that will hang around Peterborough.
She shares Sakellariou’s vision for making poetry more accessible to people of all levels of interest.
It was hard for Gibson to contain her excitement through the installation process.
“This is the way poetry is supposed to be, for everyone,” Gibson said.