Take Us Quietly

In Take Us Quietly, Armstrong explores life, sickness, death and the importance of paying attention to the wider world, filtered through her own unique sensibility. Nothing is taken for granted in this new collection.

Whether travelling through Spain, mining a memory from a rural New Brunswick childhood, or exposing the concessions of love in a long-term relationship, Armstrong creates poems that leap from thought to thought, from one emotional tone to another, propelled by torque and tension.

Startlingly beautiful with unexpected intensity, Take Us Quietly draws us into the mind’s deepest truths. By turns nightmarish, erotic and full of delight, her third collection of poems drills through the surface into the artesian well of memory.

AUTHOR

Tammy Armstrong

Tammy Armstrong grew up in St. Stephen, New Brunswick and lived in Vancouver, BC for several years, where she earned a BA and an MFA from the University of British Columbia. She currently lives in Fredericton, New Brunswick. Armstrong has two books of poetry published with Anvil Press: ‘Unravel’ and ‘Bogman’s Music’ (a Governor General’s Literary Award nominee). Her poems have appeared in the following publications: ‘The Antigonish Review’, ‘Event’, ‘The Fiddlehead’, ‘Grain’, ‘The Malahat Review’, ‘Pottersfield Portfolio’, ‘Prairie Fire’, ‘Room of One’s Own’, ‘subTerrain’, ‘TickleAce’, and ‘Zygote’. “A Proper Burial for Song Birds” placed third in the League of Canadian Poets’ National Poetry Contest, Vintage 2000. “If In a Marriage to a Car Salesman” and “Clam Bake 1974” were performed on International Women’s Day 2000 at the National Art Gallery.

Reviews

In Take Us Quietly, Tammy Armstrong displays an unusual virtuosity. Her poems team with visceral, sharp-edged images, whether cracking open the rough shell of rural childhood or the accommodations of love in a long-term relationship.

With language more astonishing than ever, Armstrong writes with both torque and tension as her poems leap from thought to thought, from one emotional tone to another. By turns nightmarish, erotic, and full of delight, Take Us Quietly exposes the mind’s deepest truths, drilling through the surface tension of the present into the artesian well of memory.

“Tammy Armstrong’s writing has impressed me for its daring syntax, imaginative language, offbeat imagery, and strong sense of purpose. Hers are poems of sensual impact, strange display and exotic approach: in her hands, a local garage, a love affair, and a foreign locale are taken, turned and twisted, so that we see, think and feel the new as really new — in all its unquiet detail. Armstrong’s poetry was already very good. Take Us Quietly confirms it has just gotten better in terms both loud and clear.”