Image copyright Roger Bloor 2017 - Graffiti outside the Turner Contemporary Margate

Few voices in contemporary poetry can match the instinctive reverence of Roger Bloor’s. His poems contemplate moments, testing their fragility, hearing their whispers, knowing they will modulate to loss. In his historical poems and in his scrutiny of the present, Roger Bloor is the most delicate of elegiac writers, in all things sensitive, attentive, and rich in understanding.
Michael Hulse
Michael Hulse
I am a retired consultant psychiatrist and former Senior Lecturer and Teaching Fellow at Keele University School of Medicine. I was prior to my retirement the Lead for Medical Humanities at Keele and I have written poetry on and off for over 60 years. Some of my writing is influenced by my experiences as a Royal Air Force Medical Branch psychiatrist and a specialist in Addiction Psychiatry the remainder owes a great deal to life in general. I have an MA in Poetry Writing from Newcastle University studying at the poetry School in London. I have a longstanding interest in history, and research and write on significant folk from the past both in my poetry and my other writings.
I have poems published in The Hippocrates Prize Anthology 2017, Poetry Now Anthology " Growing Old', Allegro Poetry , Affect Publications 'StillBorn' & Words for the Wild Anthology 2018. My collection of Poems 'A Less Clear Dream' was shortlisted for the Arnold Bennet Book Prize 2018, I have three poems in the Landscapes Anthology from Empress Press, and one of our cats has appeared in poetic form in the October 2018 issue of Now Then . My Poem 'Do not turn the page' was published in Magma Poetry - climate change issue 72 Autumn 2018. My poem 'shared memory overflow error' was Highly Commended in the AUB International Poetry Prize 2021
I was Poet in Residence 2018/19 at the historic award winning Trentham Gardens in Staffordshire
I am coeditor of The Alchemy Spoon
I have poems published in The Hippocrates Prize Anthology 2017, Poetry Now Anthology " Growing Old', Allegro Poetry , Affect Publications 'StillBorn' & Words for the Wild Anthology 2018. My collection of Poems 'A Less Clear Dream' was shortlisted for the Arnold Bennet Book Prize 2018, I have three poems in the Landscapes Anthology from Empress Press, and one of our cats has appeared in poetic form in the October 2018 issue of Now Then . My Poem 'Do not turn the page' was published in Magma Poetry - climate change issue 72 Autumn 2018. My poem 'shared memory overflow error' was Highly Commended in the AUB International Poetry Prize 2021
I was Poet in Residence 2018/19 at the historic award winning Trentham Gardens in Staffordshire
I am coeditor of The Alchemy Spoon
I have a number of publications available click here to purchase signed copies
Winner of the Poetry London
Clore Prize 2019
Here is my interview with Martha Sptackland about the competition
Clore Prize 2019
Here is my interview with Martha Sptackland about the competition
Few voices in contemporary poetry can match the instinctive reverence of Roger Bloor’s. His poems contemplate moments, testing their fragility, hearing their whispers, knowing they will modulate to loss. In his historical poems and in his scrutiny of the present, Roger Bloor is the most delicate of elegiac writers, in all things sensitive, attentive, and rich in understanding.
Michael Hulse Roger Bloor’s poetry is luminous and painterly. This stunning collection of poems honours his Staffordshire homeland, the forgotten and the marginalised juxtaposed with the poet’s gentle observations of intimacy, companionship and enduring love. Vanessa Lampert Roger Bloor’s poems are haunted by the realities of nature, historical stories and love. The poems start with ‘Solstice Song’ a poem of the very present caught in a yearning for the past. This theme, with different subjects, is continued throughout the book. Bloor uses precise, vivid language for all of his themes with subtle and powerful cadences. The reader is left with much to think about after the book has ben returned to the shelf. Wendy French |
Stacking Winter Wood
|
My Poetry for sale
click on the image to buy a signed copy
![]() I am one of the contributing poets in
Adinda van't Klooster's book "Stillborn" The book contains the images of twelve artworks on the theme of stillbirth by Adinda van‘t Klooster and twelve poems in response to the artworks. The artworks have been made over the past seven years. And is available on Amazon ( click on the image ) |
![]() |
Really pleased to have a poem in this anthology - the book is available from
Words from the Wild and is raising funds for a great cause all profits go to ADD – the campaign against destructive development |

In a sequence of four linked poems the four stories within the book shift in time recounting events in a small Staffordshire village, the poems carry with them the underlying link of untimely and violent death, the payment for the price of our imperfect humanity in an imperfect world.The village of Audley is a small parish situated in the North West of Staffordshire, edging on to the Cheshire border. The author and historian Robert Speake described it as ‘ An out of the way, quiet place’ The poems address the ever-present spectre of Death who, residing at the parish bounds, readily accepts any invitation to visit, whether by the call of Lust, the pursuit of Power, the drive for Profit or the opportunity to renew acquaintance with his oldest friend Revenge. Illustrated by the author's linocut prints the book uses a terza rima narrative form to recount events ranging from the middle ages to the period of World War 1.
Available on Amazon or from Audley and District Family History Society
Available on Amazon or from Audley and District Family History Society

Pleased to have a poem in this great anthology
available from
Onslaught Press
Anthologies seem to be coming out thick and fast these days, often supporting the best of causes. Although it’s not possible to review them all, or even report their publication, here is one that certainly deserves a second glance, and not just because of its subject’s closeness to the nation’s heart. It’s the quality of the poems therein, too.
Greg Freeman on Write Out Loud.
Pleased to have a poem in this great anthology
available from
Onslaught Press
Anthologies seem to be coming out thick and fast these days, often supporting the best of causes. Although it’s not possible to review them all, or even report their publication, here is one that certainly deserves a second glance, and not just because of its subject’s closeness to the nation’s heart. It’s the quality of the poems therein, too.
Greg Freeman on Write Out Loud.
![]() A great Anthology with my fellow poets from the MA course at Newcastle University
available from Lulu |
Really pleased to have 2 poems in this anthology available from Fair Acre Press
and honoured to have one of them read by Simon Callow

My poem
' shared memory overflow error' was selected by Glyn Maxwell as Highly Commended
in the AUB International Poetry Prize 2021.
The digital anthology is available on the AUB website link below
AUB WEBSITE
' shared memory overflow error' was selected by Glyn Maxwell as Highly Commended
in the AUB International Poetry Prize 2021.
The digital anthology is available on the AUB website link below
AUB WEBSITE