The posters are the brainchild of Phantom Billstickers, a company which has posters at dozens of sites throughout New Zealand.
Phantom Billstickers founder Jim Wilson said in a statement the company felt a responsibility to help New Zealand artists be heard.
A different set of posters is launched every four to six weeks in New Zealand, each featuring different artists.
Launches had already been held in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.
Poem posters are also put up in Sydney, Paris and several cities in the United States.
Michele Leggot, the 2008-09 New Zealand Poet Laureate, led a small ceremony at a billboard in George St yesterday to unveil posters, with works by New Zealand artists Sandra Bell, Jay Clarkson, Sam Hunt and Brian Turner, and US poets Robert Pinsky, Marcie Simms and Joe Treceno.
Many poems were read, including by Dunedin City councillor John Bezett, poet David Howard and 2009 Robert Burns Fellow Michael Harlow.
