In the 1980s he translated textbooks for Palacký University, and was the Czech correspondent for Paideuma, a journal dedicated to Pound studies published by the National Poetry Foundation (USA).

Contacts with the British Council brought him in touch with poets Richard Caddel and Stephen Watts, with whom he became friends, translating their verse in Czech.

He was married three times: to photographer Milena Valušková, sister of his friend and fellow poet Rostislav Valušek; to translator Iveta Mikešová, with whom he had two children, Jan and Tereza; and to the novelist and editor Alena Jakoubková.

He is known for his “quiet, thoughtful poetry”,[1] which could probably be best described as minimalist – his translation of Basil Bunting's Briggflatts into sparse Czech is masterful – with a good dose of Catholicism, and the haiku form suited him especially well.

Petr Mikeš was one of the writers-editors-typists of the important Moravian samizdat edition Texty přátel (others included poets Jaroslav Erik Frič, Rostislav Valušek, Eduard Zacha).