I take the lift to the top of the Mack
out of the tightening web of people
and breathe the quiet dark,
as by a country fireside,
with the city nestled like a bed of embers among the hills.
I see a single window lighted
in the side of Jack Frame’s dome
and wonder how, from a studio in the city rooftops
he paints nothing but trees.
About Pedalling Poetry
Writer Ellen McAteer is founder of Tell It Slant poetry bookshop in Glasgow, and Publishing Manager for the Poetry Translation Centre. She was General Manager at Poetry London magazine, a visiting lecturer at the Glasgow School of Art, and a mentee of the Clydebuilt Verse Apprenticeship Scheme, under Alexander Hutchison, as well as a singer with the band Stone Tape and a solo singer who won a BBC Radio competition with her song Blue Valentine. She was Director of the Poetry Trust, which ran the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival, a director of the Scottish Writers’ Centre, a visiting lecturer at Oxford University's MSt in creative writing, and a member of the core group of performers at the Hammer and Tongue spoken word collective in Oxford. She is a qualified Librarian.
Ellen McAteer 