Bath Canal Poetry Route
Over the last year I have re-launched and re-invented the Bath Canal Poetry Route into a proposal for a series of 10 or more site-specific poems, forming a poetry route that can be followed up or down the towpath along the canal in Bath. Over the summer of 2023, I invited the public to send me words, phrases, ideas and themes linked to the Bath Canal, which I incorporated into a series of collaborative poems. These poems respond to the canal’s features, histories, mythologies, wildlife hotspots, sense of wonder and magic, and its possible futures. Each of the poems interacts directly with its context in some way, building up a layered sense of place.
I am currently in the process of working with the Canal & River Trust to secure funding to have these poems made and installed along the canal, working with local crafts people and possibly also running some local creative workshops as part of the process.
The poetry route invites passersby to slow down, connect, and reflect on their time spent along the canal, paying deeper attention to the sounds, smells, and sensations which become part of the experience of reading the poems. I also hope to encourage people to contemplate the shared human and non-human history of the canal, and to consider the kind of future they want and could help create for our waterways.
The proposal currently consists of four different types of poems: A Tunnel Poem, which highlights the canal as an essential ecosystem for supporting Bath’s myriad bat species; Two Bridge Poems, which draw on the mythological figures of Old Father Thames and Sabrina whose stone-carved faces can be seen along the canal; A Song Thrush Poem, a ‘kinetic poem’ made up of peoples’ observations from along the canal which can be read multiple different ways; and 6 Lock Poems, in the style of the pilot Top Lock Poem (see below), with each poem reflecting the particular location, feeling, and history of each lock.
In September 2018, as a pilot for the 'Lock Poems' in the Bath Canal Poetry Route, I wrote a poem and installed it with the help of the Canal & River Trust in Bath Top Lock (13).
For over 200 years Bath’s beautiful canal has drifted quietly on, collecting stories. The experience of floating down the water, slowly rising and falling with the levels of the city whilst fully immersed in the historic landscape, is a thought-provoking and contemplative experience. Now imagine if, while waiting for the locks to empty and fill, there was something there to engage you, to pass the time, and to offer a glimpse of the powerful history, stories, and ideas the canal holds.
Bath Top Lock Poem is a “transforming” poem, designed to be hidden under the upper waterline of the lock until it is emptied. The poem is then revealed line by line, and with each additional line, the poem takes on new meaning.
The poem was pressure-washed through a stencil onto the wall of the lock chamber – a process that is both natural and environmentally friendly, lifting away a layer of dirt to leave an imprint of the letters on the brick.
I fundraised the cost of the stencil with the help of an amazing community of supporters and was able to carry out the project pilot thanks to the generous help of the Canal and River Trust volunteer team. It even made the local news!
If you think you might be able to help with funding recommendations or if you’d like to be involved in the installation of the poems and/or the physical creation of the poems, please let me know in the comments below or by contacting me.
I am currently thinking about the possibility of the poems being physically made and/or installed as part of a series of public or school-related workshops or the possibility of running school activities relating to the poetry route after its completion, so please also get in touch if you have any ideas or contacts regarding this.
Please also feel free to let me know what you think about the project generally in the comments or by contacting me.