"Taxi-drivers will now say to me, 'Give us a poem, then, mate.' The fact that 60,000 books somewhere in the world are by me is amazing. He is leading a creative writing course at Luton University in the spring, and his verse is even taught in schools now "People are waking up to poetry," he claims. Between heaven and earth lies the answer."Many of Hegley's clever, comic poems, delivered with a compelling sneer, point up the difficulty of communication "That's what being human is all about," he observes. "We're social beings, and the fact that we don't face up to that causes a lot of problems."Hegley is hopeful that his proselytising for poetry is having some effect. You have to say 'Here's a poem about a dog that keeps on farting.' That way, you get over the first hurdle and get them to listen a bit.

To appeal to a comedy audience, you mustn't go too much into the clouds, but, hey, everybody's capable of flying, man, so don't forget that, either People are knowingly undersold. "People might have thought, 'Oh no, poems!' but you soon learn tricks about how to present something unpalatable. If you're introduced as a poet, you're in trouble from the start. "When I first played at the meat-eating Comedy Store, I was food for the lions," he recalls.

In the early 1980s, poetry suffered from a big image problem, and Hegley had to overcome the prejudices of audiences who equated verse with being force-fed incomprehensible set- text Chaucer. It's always better if you can say something that is funny and also meaningful."It was not so easy when he started out. He puts that down to the fact that his poems have something to say."OK, so it's not Heaney," he concedes, "but there is some weight in my poetry Comedy is an important part of it, but it's not cheaply won It's not purely for comedic effect. That was worth the 15 previous minutes of not understanding very much. When a poet says that, you think 'wow'."Despite the claims of the much-hyped - and extremely well-remunerated - newcomer, Murray Lachlan Young, Hegley is still the most successful poet on the comedy circuit. I was reading Ted Hughes the other day and came across this phrase - 'the night snowed stars'. They're precious to me, even if I only get one phrase from them.

It sounds like I'm a Messianic poetry person," he continues, stating the obvious, "but for me it's completely natural to take poetry and try to make it popular and populist."The 44-year-old Hegley is honest enough to admit that, like the majority of us, "I hardly understand any poetry, but I still buy poetry books all the time. When people say 'here is poetry', it's like saying 'here is air'. It's in those lovely phrases like 'pleased as punch', or 'wide awake', or 'a lick of paint' - that's beautiful poetry because the brush is like a tongue Poetry is everybody's. It's words that are charged, it's vibrancy, mystery, aliveness, intensity," he grins, "and bollocks.""Poetry is a natural part of our lives, but for some reason we've become alienated from it. I want to write that."Wiry and stubbly, Hegley makes for intense company. He often answers questions with questions, and wanted to know all about my background.

To emphasise a point, he leans right forward, so we are almost indulging in an Eskimo kiss. He greets me cheerily as a fellow speccy - "I didn't know you were a glasses-wearer." But, after that, there is no distracting him from preaching his gospel of poetry "Poetry is the opposite of speaking words which are mundane. "It has a darker, latent power within it that works when you're not expecting it. Poetry has a surface of significance which is a gift to us, but within that gift is something that hits you - wallop - and tears you apart. "I buy obscure poetry magazines - I must admit to it - and one of them gave a definition of poetry as a Trojan Horse," he says. Putting down his knife and fork in a north London restaurant to concentrate better on his sermonising, he talks with verve about verse. He is like a mustard-keen magician eager to show me a new trick.Hegley does not see poetry as something to be endured during torturous double English lessons at school and then ignored for the rest of your life He is evangelical about the power of poetry.