The cover picture is to the right...
'The Woolworths Suite' is a sequence from the book with several characters: a woman working the lift in the Woolworths’ Tower (New York); shop girls working in Woolworths (Liverpool); a magician’s assistant; and a Welsh lass who loses an eye when the Lusitania liner is bombed.
This sequence can be heard live on tour. Clare Potter (Wales), Aileen la Tourette (USA) and Cath Nichols (England) will voice the characters. Each poet will give a solo reading of her own work, before we present the ensemble piece.
Next Event
Wednesday 19th September
THE EVERYMAN BISTRO THIRD ROOM, Hope Street, Liverpool
hosted by the Dead Good Poets Society
This will be the Liverpool launch of My Glamorous Assistant
Doors open 8.00pm, event starts at 8.30pm
Friday 21st September
ST MARYS MILLENNIUM CENTRE, Meadow lane, West Derby, Liverpool
with the Dark Horse Venture, but open to all
A morning READING plus afternoon WRITING WORKSHOP. Lunch included. 5 pounds or 4 pounds concessions
10.30 am start. Finish by 3.00pm.
Book with Barbara 0151 256 8866
See 'news' tab for blog on the NY gigs in July.
www.poetrybay.com
The Tallest Building in the World
Not a hard interview, no, I was chosen
because I’m five foot four,
shorter than him that owns this place.
We’re all blonde too,
and wear white gloves, a smart uniform.
Mr Woolworth likes to see me
close the doors, press the buttons.
I like to sew at home;
I have small hands and a neat way
with my fingers (I come
from a family of weavers). The lifts,
they say, have triple safety features,
and stop to within an eighteenth
of an inch on every floor.
I’m the spider plumbing depths
between a girdered web. Here,
there’s such precision. I think of
a shuttle, zooming back and forth,
crossing the weft of each floor,
filling in the picture of an empire
built on dimes and cents. It’s a
fairy-tale palace for the 20th century,
with electric lights on every floor!
They say it’s like the parliament in England.
They call it the new gothic.
This is a sky scraper. My Dad says
that’s what they used to call
a ship’s tallest mast. So, in my lift
I am a sailor in the rigging,
criss-crossing.... up and down.