Motherhood, family, sense of place and reflections on the human condition are at the heart of this collection of poems, mainly written in 2017.
"Tracey Scott Townsend has such a depth of emotion behind her poetry it really touched me. Reading on, I felt exactly the same about the rest of the collection and by the time I got to Perfect Memorial I was in utter pieces.
Indeed, reading So Fast I encountered a range of very profound emotions. You must have wanted to have them made me feel guilty and I was enraged by Ways not to treat Women. But oh my goodness, the sense of loss, of grief and love was almost too much to bear at times, especially in The Visit. I also loved the final, uplifting reassertion of identity in the last poem in the collection, Not Invisible.
The quality of Tracey Scott-Townsend's writing is magnificent. Able to convey the emotions I have referred to, she can also create such vivid images of nature that the reader can picture the shore, a whale, a tern with absolute clarity. She invents compound words that capture perfectly what she is describing and knows exactly when a rhyme or repetition will enhance her message and when to pare down her words to the bare minimum for the greatest effect. Water plays a large part in her writing and her poems reflect its fluidity and ever changing appearance. I thought this was such skilled writing.
I found So Fast by Tracey Scott-Townsend an absolute gem of a collection. I fear it will be little known but it deserves to be praised amid the likes of writers like Maya Angelou, Dylan Thomas and Sylvia Plath. So Fast explores everything it means to be a woman, a mother, a lover and a friend. I loved every word."
Linda Hill review: www.lindasbookbag.com
Tracey Scott-Townsend is a novelist, poet and artist living in the East Riding of Yorkshire. She has exhibited widely across Britain and her books are published by Inspired Quill and Wild Pressed Books.
