2023 was a year for….

Writing, Editing, Compiling, Drawing, Painting, Designing, Illustrating, Facilitating, Photographing and of course lots and lots of thinking.

Taking a New Year’s Eve look back at 2023, a productive year. Among the most memorable are the following:

  • Collating, editing and designing the anthology “Poetry in the Park” including illustration for the cover
  • Leading a series of workshops for “Poetry by the Canal”
  • collating, editing and designing the anthology “Poetry by the Canal”
  • Cover illustration and design for “As You Were” an anthology from Falinge Park Writing Group
  • Delivering 15 creative writing sessions, based around my story “My Wild Wolf Adventure” for children aged 5 to 11
  • Delivering a range of new creative writing workshops to local Creative Writing Groups
  • Selling art alongside my wife selling vintage at Hand and Treasure in Hebden Bridge Town Hall
  • working with young people to create new poetry at Deeplish Primary Academy
  • Creating graphics for use in an excellent short film by Harry Wheeler
  • Reviewing a range of events and performances for All Across the Arts
  • Writing and sometimes plenty of new poems
  • Working on a brand new personal project, a narrative book length piece regarding liminal spaces with poetry and illustrations – this may take some time….
  • Creating new artworks including, and sometimes combining, traditional and digital techniques
  • Supporting the creativity of young people with our recently registered charity Vibe Rochdale

Imposter Syndrome

What is it, why do we get it and what can be done about it?

Giclée print of Pelican - shown in frame for illustration only
Giclée print of Pelican – shown in frame for illustration only

Almost everyone will at some time suffer from the thing we call imposter syndrome.

In strict clinical or psychological terms it is specifically used to describe a situation where the person with the syndrome has a persistent internalised fear and it can often be accompanied by other mental health issues.

In common language the definition is not so rigidly applied and it is essentially the feeling that we are somehow not sufficiently suitable, capable or qualified enough for the situation we are in. Suffering from imposter syndrome makes you feel like a fraud. I believe that it is perfectly possible to feel confident and competent in some areas yet feel the opposite in others. This is the definition I am using in this article.

One of the side effects of this type of imposter syndrome is the need to excessively prepare; for example if you are going to make a presentation to a group of people you would run through it again and again, you might well practice later into the night to be sure you are ready, you might spend the journey to make the presentation running through it in your mind. You may be tired and stressed by all the preparation yet the presentation will still go well but you are then sure that it only went well because of all the preparation that you did.

At a lesser level the feeling might prevent you telling people what you can do. As a professional freelancer you need to tell people what you can do, you need to promote your own abilities; that is tricky when the syndrome keeps telling you that you aren’t good enough.

Among the wide variety of work I’ve done is SOME illustration. I’ve designed a handful of book covers, I’ve been commissioned to produce drawings, I’ve edited books, I’ve created illustrations for instruction manuals and for training courses ranging from photography, digital imaging to bicycle maintenance. I’ve made illustrations for cards etc. Yet when asked to make some illustrations for a film my head shouts at me “you’re not an illustrator, why don’t they get a real illustrator?”

So I tell myself that “people have paid me to do illustrations for them, I’ve made illustrations for various jobs, therefore I am an illustrator” but in my head that nagging voice stills says “What if you can’t do it? What if they find out that you are a fraud?”

Illustration for book cover

As a poet I’ve performed in little open mic venues and on festival stages. I’ve learned how to work the room, how to use a microphone and how to pace my performance. I have run numerous workshops for all ages from 5 to 80+, I’ve led poetry writing projects and produced books.

I’ve had poems published in books and online and I’ve been interviewed for radio programs. I’ve been commissioned to write poems and am paid at a proper professional rate. With all of that I can call myself a professional poet, BUT there is that voice again; “you’ve not had a book in Waterstones, you’ve not been on television, you’ve not Amanda Gorman, Tony Walsh or Alfred Tennyson….”

That voice is sometimes hard to ignore. That voice is the imposter syndrome.

Feeling the need to produce good quality work is not imposter syndrome.

Feeling pressure to do better is not imposter syndrome.

Wanting to be the best you can is not imposter syndrome.

Those things are about ambitions, but handle ambition with care because it can lead to making unhelpful comparisons. Every poet is different, we each have our own styles, our own interests and create our own unique work. Whilst ambition to be better is good, ambition to be the next Armitage, Sissay or Duffy is not so good.

I don’t want to be the next Seamus Heaney, I want to be Seamus Kelly. I want to write, draw and create as Seamus Kelly. One place where I cannot possibly be an imposter is in being Seamus Kelly.

You have to be yourself. You have to stop comparing yourself in a competitive way to others. You have to stop putting yourself down. You have to stop undervaluing yourself, your skills, your work and your creativity.

You have to do all that whilst that voice says “fraud”, and you have to credit yourself for successes. The voice may never shut up, but using facts, actual things you have and can do, to tackle it can make things better.

Don’t be the next Picasso, Mozart, Wordsworth or Neruda – be you, look for the value there.

I’m not suggesting its easy, or that it can be done without help. My help comes from fellow creatives and from my wife. It comes from the person who comes up to thank me after a performance because a poem reminded them of their mother, it comes from faces listening for the next words. It comes from the workshop participant eager to share what they’ve written. It comes from the requests for me to produce creative work. All of those things are needed to quieten that voice, to confidently say “I’m not a fraud”, (and at least most of the time to believe it).

Writing Workshop – Protest and Conflict

A selection of protest placards for tomorrow’s workshop.

Tomorrow I will be bringing a new workshop on Protest and Conflict to the Falinge Park Writing Group in Rochdale. The group meets every Thursday morning from 10am to noon at the Community Hub in Falinge Park. Everyone is welcome regardless of prior writing experience.

In this workshop we will look at the role of writing in protest and conflict and look at examples from history and more recent work. There will be a focus on poetry but those attending will be supported to write in whatever for they prefer.

The park is just a 15 minute walk from Rochdale Interchange, and for those driving, parking is available in the park for these sessions, just drive in through the gate at the bottom of Sheriff Street and follow the drive to the tarmac area in front of the house.

For more information please contact me on seamus@onepoetsvision.co.uk or Eileen Earnshaw on eileen.earnshaw@yahoo.co.uk

Storytelling and Writing this week

My Pet T-Rex

Dinosaur picture coloured in by children using pencils.

This week I’ve had a great time running creative writing sessions for children as part of the excellent HAF (Health, Activity and Food) program with YourTrust Rochdale. The children in each group range from age 4 to age 12 and this week we’ve worked with my children’s story “My pet T-Rex”.

We talk about dinosaur facts, we look at my life sized dinosaur eggs and birds eggs for comparison before I tell them my story and then help them to create their own stories. The focus is firmly on creativity and fun and children are encouraged to use their imaginations.

Dinosaur picture coloured in by children using pencils.

some great examples this week have included;

“The dinosaur became sad because the people ran away. I gave him a flower to eat and it cheered him up.”

One girl told of an aquatic dinosaur that could take her under the water, “it was magical, I tell ya!”

A dinosaur as big as the the Leaning Tower of Pisa and another with square shaped eyes.

There were magical dinosaurs that could teleport, read minds, dance, sing and even one with an extendable neck. There were dinosaurs that went on picnics, went shopping or left a trail of squashed footprints through a forest.

Children at my sessions are encouraged to join in with actions and sounds but yesterday one group asked me if they could act out the story. At the end of the session I spent a few minutes working out how we could act out the story and we then had a performance with young people taking the roles of the dinosaur and the children in the story – they were fully engaged and had a great time.

Dinosaur picture coloured in by children using pencils.

When we’ve had our fill of talking, listening and writing there may be time for some artwork or creative colouring like the examples shown in this post. It has been an inspiring week of story telling, more dinosaurs, more imagination and more magic with children from some of the most deprived backgrounds.

if you’d like the children in your school or groups to experience this unique storytelling and writing session please email seamus@onepoetsvision.co.uk

I also offer storytelling and writing sessions based on my original children’s stories covering topics including, an ocean adventure, a space adventure, wolves, mini beasts and forest friends. All of the stories have plenty of reference to science and nature, echoing my own interests and my degree in Ecology.

Sessions run for one to two hours and up to three sessions can be delivered during a typical school day.

Is writing really work?

An image of a heavy pen, perhaps writing in blood

Poets and writers; I’ve been thinking about what we do, is it really work?

Sometimes writing doesn’t feel like work. Sometimes getting the words down and shaping them is enjoyable and even relaxing. For many writers poetry is a kind of therapy or catharsis, words flow and at the end the poet feels somehow relieved or better.

But, sometimes the things about which we write can change that relaxing idyllic process. To nick couple of words from W.B. Yeats, the process is “changed utterly”.

Yesterday I started work on a poem, inspired by a single line by E Hemingway, “it was coming down the valley even in the early morning”. My new poem contains a few of those words, but the subject bears no other real relationship to Hemingway’s original writing. Thanks to Eileen Earnshaw for putting those words in front of me.

The subject I started writing about was complex, it was about migration and it was about the two-fold tragedies of a growing cultural attitude and the loss of life as people try to find new homes. The hard part is that the poet actually writes not simple statement of facts but expresses how they feel about them, deep down, inside. The first draft took maybe 20 minutes and a second draft started straight after that. After half an hour I was nowhere near finished but I felt completely “wrung out”.

Over the years I worked in many different jobs and I’ve done a range of sports, but rarely have I felt as tired and drained as after those 30 minutes with my fountain pen and a notebook.

The end of a week labouring on a building site, or teaching young people with behavioural issues, crossing the line of a 10k run or finishing a couple of hours training on the velodrome behind a motorbike; those things all feel near impossible to repeat, yet we go back and do them again when we’ve recovered.

So it is with writing. Today, feeling somewhat recovered, I’ve worked on further drafts and edits and have a version of my newest poem, called “Grains”. Once again I feel empty, hollow, my hands are no longer steady and even re-reading it just now is like being dragged out of sleep when you’ve just managed to drift off. To hear a powerful poem can feel like being punched in the senses, to write that poem the poet must keep on battering those senses until it is ready.

The poem is unlikely to be finished just yet (sometimes I think they never really are) but I might give it an open-mic test run on Sunday evening. It won’t be there to entertain, and I almost feel I should apologise to the audience (only almost though) who will end up feeling a little of what I’ve felt writing it.

So what am I getting at? What’s my point?

It is simply this: writing is indeed work.

If something really matters it may be harder it will be to write about. A poem being hard to write, however difficult it may be, is no excuse for not writing it.

What do you think?

What is the hardest to write?

Poetry in the Park – FREE Writing Workshops – 22nd April 2023

Choose from three poetry workshops running from 10:00am to 12:00noon

Poetry in the park logo

To reserve your place on your chosen workshop please email lizwhitecreative@gmail.com


Introduction to Poetry – Eileen Earnshaw

Rochdale poet, writer and workshop facilitator, Eileen Earnshaw, runs the Falinge Park Writing Group and has led several writing projects in Bolton after completing her BA Honours Degree in Creative Writing at Bolton University. This workshop is suitable for anyone interested in starting to write poetry and those who are relatively new to writing.

Eileen’s track record in helping new writers to gain confidence will ensure and engaging and inclusive workshop where everyone will leave with new knowledge and some new poetry.

Freeform Poetry – Gaia Holmes

Calderdale poet, Gaia Holmes, has won several awards for her poetry and was recently awarded a fellowship by the Arts Foundation Futures, for her place writing. Gaia is an experienced workshop facilitator who always brings positivity and fresh viewpoints to her sessions.

This Freeform Poetry session is aimed at those who want to develop their writing and look at new approaches to their poetry. Participants are sure to enjoy the session and leave with some new writing.


Polish and Perfect – Seamus Kelly

Littleborough based poet and artist, Seamus Kelly, has led a number of successful writing projects including the 2022 Poetry in the Park project in Littleborough with a series of workshops culminating in the publication of a large print poetry book of the participants’ work.

This workshop is suitable for those who have written some poetry and would like to finds ways to polish it and prepare it for publication or performance. The workshop will include techniques for using a microphone while reading your polished words.


Poetry performance – 12:00 to 1:00pm

Following the workshops there will be a performance session in Hare Hill House where participants, and perhaps workshop leaders, will share some of their words.


To reserve your place on your chosen workshop please email lizwhitecreative@gmail.com

Poetry in the Park – James Nash – 22nd April 2023

April sees a new, exciting, one day, poetry event at Hare Hill House, Littleborough.

The morning sees three FREE poetry writing workshops by published poets (further details to follow in my next post) plus poetry performance, followed from 2:00pm to 4:00pm, by an Afternoon with James Nash.

James, hailing from Leeds and Bridlington, is a popular poet, workshop leader and speaker with 8 collections of poems published so far and has been a frequent guest and host at literature festivals. James’ latest collection “Heart Stones” is his third collection of sonnets; information about the book is shown below, beneath the online booking link.

during the afternoon James will talk about his passions, his writing and will share some poems with the audience.

Tickets for this not to be missed event are available now on Eventbrite using the link below, or can be purchased from me in person for just £5.00 each.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In his third volume of sonnets, James Nash examines urban and seaside environments in a Yorkshire he has known through fifty years living in the North. His sonnets soar over the land – from Leeds, a predominantly Victorian city, to the Wolds in the East Riding of Yorkshire, walking and cycling into the natural world with a pen and paper never far from his hand.

James openly shows his debts to the great poets and writers of previous generations, from Winifred Holtby to Philip Larkin, from Matthew Arnold to Dylan Thomas – and with this sparkling new collection, lays a fresh claim to be named among them. To borrow some of his ​own words, James’ gift is to be a “clear microscope” for our times, finding hope in the many “miracles of detail” that pass through his unwavering gaze; into verses that glow with warmth, insight and poignancy. He thinks his old English master would be quite proud.

Kodachrome to Monochrome – Writers on Tap – 2nd February 2023

Kodachrome to Monochrome – Writers on Tap – 2nd February 2023

On Thursday I will be delivering a brand new creative writing workshop, Kodachrome to Monochrome, for Writers on Tap. Formerly the Touchstones Creative Writing Group, the group now meet at The Medicine Tap in Rochdale on the first Thursday of the month from 2:00pm to 4:00pm.

A monochrome image taken inside chethams library in Manchester.

The workshop will look at tone, colour and details in creative writing with prompts and exercises to encourage some new writing. All are welcome and all genres of writing are encouraged. The picture above is one of a selection to be used as prompts.

Printmaking ready for Spring

After concentrating on writing and leading the project to produce our large print poetry book, Poetry in the Park, I’ve relished the chance to get on with some new visual art.

A handmade print of two cats is being peeled from the Lino block to reveal the image

I’m refining a Linocut of one of our local jackdaws with just a few final tweaks to the carving to make. Whilst working on the design I took the chance to create an embellished digital version as well.

An image of a jackdaw in black has grass, sky and paint splatter effects added digitally

A few months ago I bought Procreate to use with my Apple Pencil and iPad and it has been an opened up so many new techniques. I love to draw with fountain pens so a couple of weeks ago created some digital brushes in Procreate that mimic my pens and I’ve also created some to mimic the way my Lino cutters work. Now I can sketch by hand, refine it digitally and then hand transfer, carve and handprint from Lino.

The opportunities for illustration combining traditional and digital techniques though Procreate with Pencil and Photoshop with Wacom cintiq are really interesting. There are a few larger images that l am developing which I hope to have ready for print fairs around Easter.

Poetry in the Park anthology launched today

Many thanks to all of those who attended our launch today. Extra thanks to Nick from Hare Hill House for making us so welcome and set up to room for us, and I especially admire the upside down Christmas Tree.

With tea and coffee and a table of home made cakes, proving that some of our poets are also excellent bakers, the 40 strong audience settled down to listen to an introduction from Elizabeth White, Chair of Create and Connect who organised the project. Elizabeth spoke about the motivation and aims of our project, the reasons for producing a large print poetry book and thanked our sponsors “Crook Hill Community Benefit Fund”.

Photo of all participating poets and Janet Elmsley with their copies of the book
The poets and Cllr Janet Elmsley with copies of the anthology

Eileen Earnshaw, a superb local poet, and I shared a couple of poems each to give some idea of the range of styles and subjects that we write about and then each of the other poets who took part in the project read some of their work from the newly published book.

The participating poets are; Denise Greenall, Eileen Earnshaw, Elizabeth White, Graham Haynes, Julie Woodrup, Marilyn Allred, Nic Holliday, Ray Stearn, Sandra Buckley, Susan Benton and myself.

Cllr. Janet Emsley, Deputy Leader of Rochdale Council, always a staunch supporter of the arts and her local community in Littleborough, read a poem on behalf of Elizabeth White and also expressed thanks to the sponsors and her hopes that we will continue to see such community based creative projects in the future.

Photo of Janet Emsley, Seamus Kelly and Elizabeth White with copies of “Poetry in the Park”
Cllr Janet Emsley, Seamus Kelly (poet and facilitator), Elizabeth White (Create and Connect)

The book, and the readings, were very well received and copies will be distributed free of charge to people experiencing sight loss, Rotary will include them in Christmas parcels and they will be distributed to care homes etc. and through MeetUp at Hare Hill House.

Next week we will be releasing copies online, freely downloadable, including a version using colours and a specialist font to make it more readable for people with dyslexia.

Elizabeth White said “the launch was really successful, the poets read from their work to a very appreciative audience. Being able to offer a large print poetry book is amazing as there are very few published in this format.”

A photo of some of the audience members listening to the poets
Some of the audience listening to poems at today’s launch

A great event and project, I have been very impressed by all of the writers and thoroughly enjoyed running the workshops and editing the anthology.

The Forward Prizes for Poetry, Contact Theatre, Manchester

28th November 2022

Photo of the 5 shortlisted poets for the prize for best collection
Shortlisted poets for the Best Collection Prize

The Forward Arts Foundation is a charity that seeks to increase the audience for poetry, to increase the public knowledge, understanding and enjoyment of poetry in the UK and Ireland. The foundation promotes the annual National Poetry Day on the first Thursday of October, the Forward Prizes for Poetry and the Forward Book of Poetry, an annual anthology of the year’s best poems.

This year for the first time the Forward Prizes for Poetry, celebrating their 30th year were presented outside London, at the Contact Theatre in Manchester, which is celebrating its own 50th anniversary. The Prizes have become one of the most prestigious literature prizes in the UK and Forward announced at the event, that next year there will be an additional prize for the Best Single Poem Performed for the 2023 event.

The audience at the sold-out show enjoyed a wide range of excellent poetry from the five shortlisted poets in each of three categories. We were also treated to an excellent short film about the vibrant poetry scene in Manchester, the city that has become a major centre for poetry in recent years and can rival any city worldwide for the quality and quantity of new poetry being created. For those unable to attend the event it was also live streamed to an audience around the world.

After introductions from Keisha Thompson (CEO of Contact) and William Seighart (founder of the Forward Prizes) the presentation itself began.

Photo of Nick Laird receiving the prize for best single poem
Nick Laird receiving this prize for Dest Single Poem

The prize for Best Single Poem was awarded to Nick Laird (Professor of Poetry at Queens University in Belfast) for his powerful and moving poem “Up Late”, a kind of elegy for his father who he lost to Covid-19 in March 2021. The poem was long and multi-sectional but engaged the audience completely.




Photo of Stephanie si-Quia receiving her prize for best first collection
Stephanie si-Quia receiving her prize for best first collection

The Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection was awarded to Stephanie Sy-Quia, for her book Amnion published by Granta Poetry. Amnion is a single book length poem and Sy-Quia read a section that spoke of her time at a boarding school in Canterbury. The poem explores questions around immigration and multiple origins. I was particularly moved by the lines; “The blonde others aspired to be described with mean, hard-nosed little words: thin, pretty, nice. I wanted big-femur words like wise and kind”.

Photo of Kim Moore receiving her prize for best collection
Kim Moore receiving her prize for best collection

The Forward Prize for Best Collection went to Kim Moore for her collection titled “All the Men I Never Married” published by Seren Books. Moore read poem number 7 from her book and then when presented with the Prize also read poem number 12. Her book and the poems that make it up were prompted by the research for her PHD thesis on “Poetry and Everyday Sexism” which reinforced her belief that poetry can be transformative. She wanted to write poems that could shift people’s thinking about sexism and gender-based microaggressions but had not expected it to shift her own as well. This might sound like it would appeal only to women – both are far from the truth and the whole audience thoroughly enjoyed her poems as well as, perhaps, being challenged by them.

If/when the prizes return to Manchester in 2023 I’d highly recommend the event to anyone, writer, reader of listener with an interest in poetry. The shortlisted poems, including the winners can be found on www.forwardartsfoundation.org or in the Forward Book of Poetry 2023 available from major booksellers.

The Forward Arts Foundation are supported by the BBC, Royal Mail, leading publishers and book sellers and by Arts Council England.

Poetry in The Park Book Launch 2nd Dec 2022


Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been editing submitted poems, selecting poems for publication, designing the layout and creating the cover for our large print anthology. After all that creative and technical work I now enter the easier, but tense, phase of waiting for copies to arrive through the post.

Image of the anthology cover with an image of a tree in Autumn and text against a mid green background.

The book, draft cover shown here, will be launched on Friday 2nd December at 11.00am where some of the twelve contributing poets will read selected poems. There will also be opportunity to meet and speak to the poets.

Refreshments will be provided and copies of Poetry in the Park will be available to take away.

All are welcome to attend at Hare Hill House, in Hare Hill Park, Littleborough.