Global Poetry was founded as a project in the year 2000 to bring together some of the most special poets from common people around the world with a view to exhibiting poetry that can inspire inner transformation and also the poetry that would stand by the side of social change and raise voices for important concerns. The project was initiated by Sumeet Grover, a poet from the Indian Sub-continent who now has Britain as his home. Grover wrote about the project to then Director General of UNESCO and received an appreciative response.

Although poetry may not be as much read by people as other literary works, it still holds the richness of the human spirit that serves as a strong voice to call for a change, be it in an individual or in society. Written word is indeed powerful, and in the recent years the use of social networking sites to have thousands of people get together for a concern is quintessential example of this.

Global Poetry as a project therefore intended to develop this strong network of individuals to promote creativity and strong voices in a globalised world where in spite of highly accelerated benefits from globalisation, national, regional or ethnic identities still conflict with each other – being ignorant of a shared identity.

Global Poetry was intended to be a celebration of poetic thought that could reveal rights from wrongs, and that could use creativity to promote a shared identity – often referred to as global citizenship. ‘Such is the power of poetic thought’ – with this as the basis, this project ran for many years, drawing the attention of many poets and independent non-governmental organisations.