The poet Luke Kennard is to take over from Jo Bell as canal laureate, the Poetry Society and the Canal & River Trust announced on Monday. The new canal laureate has admitted, that, unlike Jo Bell, he is not a boater – but said he would bring “the perspective of the curious, lost pedestrian" to the job. He said: “I'm not a boater or an angler and the last time I rode a bike I hit a wall, but I love the mysterious and oddly beautiful environment of the canal paths, the focal point of the industrial and the natural; the way they act as footnotes to the principal roads and streets of the cities they pass through.”

He will begin his laureateship by foot, writing about his canalside journeys as he goes, in a series of poems that will be published, along with other observations from January 2016 on the canal poetry project blog www.waterlines.org.uk.

Richard Parry, the Canal & River Trust’s chief executive, paid tribute to Jo Bell, saying: “I would like to thank Jo for her wonderful tenure as the inaugural canal laureate. She brought her passion for canals, archaeology and boats alive to new audiences and proved just how much poetry and waterways have in common. They both inspire us and give us pause for thought. They allow us to look at familiar places in unfamiliar ways. They focus our minds on what is important and worthwhile. In an increasingly hectic world these things are more precious now than ever.”

Luke Kennard is based in Birmingham, and has published four books of poetry, a novella and several pamphlets. He has a new poetry collection out in 2016. He was recently named as one of the Poetry Book Society’s Next Generation Poets.  

Judith Palmer, director of the Poetry Society, said: “We’re very excited to be working with Luke Kennard and being transported by his canal-inspired flights of imagination as we begin the next stage of our canal poetry adventure. Jo Bell illuminated the waterways from a boater’s perspective, now Luke will take up the story from the towpath.

“Canals are an important place of escape, and a space to think and daydream. They are the perfect foil for Luke Kennard’s digressive poems of ruminative surprise.”

PHOTOGRAPH: BILLIE CHARITY-PRESCOTT

Background: Journeying along the waterways as Jo Bell looks back