The Phantom Poetry Project

New Zealander Jim Wilson and his merry band of helpers have installed poems ("Phantom Bill Stickers") on phone poles and walls in cities all over the world, having recently phantomed the US from Portland, OR to New York City.

Jan Gardner checked in with the Head Phantom for a mini-feature over at Boston.com. A snippet:

“People are people wherever you go and I think poetry brings that out,’’ Wilson told me in a phone interview. By the time I noticed the poems he posted on Irving Street in Cambridge, he had moved on to Philadelphia. He was in Cambridge and Boston in July but he couldn’t tell me where he posted poems because he doesn’t keep track. They are printed on coated poster stock. Each includes a photo and short biography of the poet.

The Phantom Poetry Project started a few years ago when Wilson, who owns Phantom Billstickers Ltd. poster company, started reading the late great New Zealand writer Janet Frame. He wanted to introduce her work to more people so he printed posters and tacked them onto poles. “Her first book of poems ‘The Pocket Mirror’ (1967) has never been out of print, and is that most rare of things, a bestselling collection of NZ verse,’’ states the bio accompanying her poem “The End.’’

Wilson, who is returning home to New Zealand this month, regularly hears from people who come across his posters and want to join in the distribution fun. He doesn’t know where it will go from here. His aim has always been simple. “I think it makes people’s lives better,’’ he said. He can be reached at [email protected].

Keep your eyes peeled! Or, better yet, get involved!