Artist John Morse has been peppering Atlanta's road intersections with haikus, nailing his poetry to traffic lights and streetlamps in an attempt to provide commuters with "poetic snapshots of the urban condition".

Mimicking the usual advertisements for weight loss and health insurance, Morse's poems began appearing throughout the city last month. From an exhortation to "Lose ugly weight fast!!/ Feel Happier! Healthier!/ Dump your bigotry" to "Meet local singles!!/ Easy: stand near others/ Hang up your cell phone" and "Free debt counselling/ Take the important first step/ Beware signs like these", the artist has written 10 different haikus, printed 50 copies of each and placed them at 500 locations across Atlanta.

"People read these bandit signs. They'll read them if it's about an electrician or they'll read them if it's about anything," explained Morse. "So if they read it and they like it, great, if they read it and they don't like it, great. But the fact is they'll read it, they're going to read your poetry and that's my goal.

"There's a great deal of bad in the world, and one of the few things that ameliorates the cruelties of the world is art," he said. "A little bit of art can do a great deal of good. And I want to spend my life doing something good ... Will it be good? I don't know. But I'm going to try."

Backed by artist support group Flux Projects, which says the signs offer "compact observations and commentary on modern life", the Roadside Haiku initiative is scheduled to run until the end of October. The haikus haven't been welcomed by everyone, however: Peggy Denby of Keep Atlanta Beautiful described them as "litter on a stick" and told local news site wsbtv.com there would be fines if they weren't taken down.