Utility : Finishing Line Press : 9781646624188 : 1646624181 : 05 Feb 2021 : "I am stunned by these poems. Joanne is fearless in carving out a place where, as a woman, she was told she didn't belong, where she worked building and maintaining substation equipment, climbing in towers, handling high voltage cable, and where she saw the spot a wireman had died when he went to work by mistake on a live breaker. A number of poets have tried to define what work is, but few have succeeded as well as Joanne Ward in not only creating a world that tastes of blood but in conquering it." -Thomas Brush, author of Last Night, winner of the 2011 Blue Lynx Prize, Open Heart, and God's Laughter, with Lynx House Press. In these poems, Joanne Ward documents her life as a "high-voltage" woman who spent a barrier-breaking career in the electrical trade at Seattle City Light. With humor and linguistic precision, she traces how she and other pioneering journey women gained their foothold, literally and