"The crowning fortune of a man is to be born to some pursuit which finds him employment and happiness, whether it be to make baskets, or broad swords, or canals..." So wrote essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson – and one English poet would heartily approve.
She is Jo Bell, the nation's Canal Laureate – who is now challenging anyone in the Westcountry who loves both poetry and canals to write an ode about waterways and water.
Poet-in-residence at the Canal and River Trust – the charity that cares for 2,000 miles of waterways across England and Wales – Jo is launching the nationwide mass-participation poetry event by asking people to write about their special memories of those long, thin strips of water in our countryside.
Being such a hilly region, the Westcountry is not quite as rich in canals as some areas. Nevertheless, we do have the still-navigable Taunton to Bridgwater Canal that flows across the Somerset Levels.
There are also several miles of navigable waters remaining of the grandiose Grand Western at Tiverton.
The brief but beautiful Exeter Ship Canal predates what was known as this nation's "canal-mania", having been built way back in the 1560s. And the Bude Canal – built chiefly to import lime-bearing sand for agricultural use to the hilly hinterland in the Devon and Cornwall border-lands – is often said to be the most unusual in Britain.
There's also a short canal at Gunnislake – once used by manure boats to avoid the tidal river weir and take dung north up the Tamar.
Jo will tweet writing prompts on @CanalPoetry to help people capture their favourite canal moments – and collect poems until September 14. The best works will feature on the Canal Laureate blog: www.waterlines.org.uk
To submit a poem send it to writingonwater@poetrysociety.org.uk. Or visit www.waterlines.org.uk for more details.
