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Michael Glover, arts correspondent for several publications, is the coordinator of the Bow-Wow Shop, a new international forum for debate about the nature and purpose of poetry. Key features of the blog are humour, style and a polemical approach. I asked him more about this project.

Michael Glover

How did you become interested in poetry?

I started writing poetry at school, and it has continued, intermittently, throughout my entire life. It seemed then to be the most vital and arresting way of saying things, to get to the root of the matter. It still does. The poets I read then seemed to sing to me. The rest of the world were, by comparison, talking in a grey monotone.

Are you a poet yourself?

Yes, I am. I write every day, and always in the early mornings, when I feel most alive creatively.

What is the importance of the Bow-Wow Shop?

Poets need to talk to each other about the nature and purpose of poetry. Contemporary poetry is too little read. I would like to encourage more people to read it. What’s more, the internet is so full of rubbish – cyber trash, if you like, because of the lack of editorial control – that I wanted to reclaim it, on behalf of the best new poetry that I could find.

Do you think it will contribute to a wider understanding of contemporary poetry, even among ordinary readers and young people?

Yes, I do. It will look appealing. It will be written with grace, wit, elegance and humour. Too many people think that poetry is mystifying, poker-faced and barely comprehensible. This forum will help to humanise the subject, to warm it through a little.

What’s the forum’s main difference from reading  poetry in a book, while sitting comfily on one’s sofa?

Well, poems are often short – unlike novels – and they can be easily read on the internet. I would like to think that The Bow-Wow Shop, all of sudden, could interrupt and enliven a working day, and also give you solace in the evening.

What’s the most interesting thing that has happened to you, thanks to the forum?

The most interesting and exciting thing is that poets from all over the world, from Iraq to Vancouver, have been in touch to say not only that they are enjoying what they read, but that they hope to contribute themselves. A truly international conversation – and at the speed that only the internet makes possible.

Who is your favourite poet (contemporary or not)?

The twentieth century poets to whom I return most often are W.H. Auden and W.B. Yeats. As for the living, two of my favourites amongst the younger generation are Alice Oswald and Matthew Francis.