About Seamus

Seamus Kelly, is a Rochdale based Irish / English poet originally from the midlands. In 2015 Seamus took the plunge giving up his full time job in sustainable travel to become a professional poet and writer.

Seamus is also a photographer and visual artist and has adopted “onepoetsvision” as a name to encompass all of those artforms.

Seamus posts on social media at:

@onepoetsvision –  on Twitter

onepoetsvision  –  on Facebook

onepoetsvision –  on Pinterest

onepoetsvision –  on Instagram

Seamus can be found performing and running writing and poetry workshops around the North West of England and occasionally further afield and offers a range or ready made or bespoke sessions details of which can be found HERE.

Details of appearances can be found HERE and some samples of his work can be found HERE.

Having led Weaving Words, Rochdale’s creative writing group, for 10 years, before turning freelance, he has performed his work across greater Manchester and beyond including a high profile performance at the 2015 Eroica Britannia Festival in Derbyshire (a festival of all things vintage and cycling) and having been invited back brought new material to appreciative audiences at the 2016 and 2017 festivals. Seamus has facilitated and delivered workshops on a wide range of topics including how to find inspiration, the technicalities of writing and a series of high-speed workshops at the Rochdale Literature and Ideas Festival. His workshop clients include schools, libraries, creative writing groups, reading groups and community organisations.

Seamus was the originator and one of the commissioned poets for Connect2 Poetry, launched in 2013 that grew from Seamus’ idea for a poetry trail around Rochdale’s 40km Connect2 network of walking and cycling routes. With support from Rochdale Library Service and Cartwheel arts a total of 35 poems were commissioned to be featured on plaques on the routes, an interactive website and phone app.

Seamus is also the resident poet and writer with Vibe in Rochdale who’s “Stories We Could Tell” project was the runner up in the Rochdale Diversity Awards 2016. Vibe works with young people including asylum seekers, young people in care and young people with mental health issues, using creativity to empower them whilst developing skills and confidence. In 2021 Seamus is leading the development of a video broadcast called “Vibecast” where young people will record reviews, interviews and short programmes about their interests. Vibecast will initially be recorded and shared through the Vibe website and as young people grow in confidence and technical abilities we will produce some live-streamed content.

As an environmentalist, with a degree in Ecology to go alongside an HND in Graphic Design and a Post Graduate Certificate in Education, 20 years in IT support, a creative career, 14 years of teaching (including working in an SEN setting) and six years promoting cycling Seamus is a rare combination of scientist and creative; prone perhaps to thinking (and talking) too much. He has worked in an SEN school for 6 years teaching young people who have severe social and behavioural issues, including young people in care and those on the autistic scale.

He  produced his first short collection of poetry “Thinking Too Much” in 2015 with poems inviting the reader to think about life, family, nature, politics, justice, peace and society – the book can be purchased using the links HERE.

Prominent Yorkshire poet James Nash said of Thinking Too Much “Seamus Kelly’s poetry is the poetry of journeys and places. Sometimes that place is the past and sometimes it is where nature and people intersect. But always it is written with a kind of passionate precision, and with great humanity”