Naomi, a 19-year-old girl, who had just graduated from senior high school, says that not many people can today appreciate the beauty of poem because their passion is killed by the education system.

"We stand in line to recite poems from textbooks in front of our teachers because it is part of the exam system and for most students the college entrance examination is always top priority," she says.

In short, poems become kind of burden for many from an early age and once they leave school, they don't want to read them again, she says.

Naomi, who is going to Canada soon to pursue further studies, says: "That's why I was really touched when an elderly man stopped to read the poem we had pasted on an overpass."

Despite the good intentions, the organizer knew that the participants' "work" would be taken down by local residents or sanitation workers sooner or later. As such, the participants used tape that is easy to deal with.

Li also suggested at least one person from each contingent go back to the spot where the poems had been pasted the following day to ensure it didn't cause problems.

He did that himself in the hutong near the Yonghegong Lama Temple the next morning. He found a clothesline to which he attached several sheets of paper the night before covered with a quilt.

"Life is always bigger than a poem and the root of a poem," he says.

"The sheets containing the poems might have been torn away or they might have still been there inside the quilt when I went there, who knows?"

tangyue@chinadaily.com.cn