Time Is a Mother
Ratings38
Average rating3.7
15
Ratings38
Average rating3.7
An instant New York Times bestseller! The highly anticipated collection of poems from the award-winning writer Ocean Vuong How else do we return to ourselves but to fold The page so it points to the good part In this deeply intimate second poetry collection, Ocean Vuong searches for life among the aftershocks of his mother’s death, embodying the paradox of sitting within grief while being determined to survive beyond it. Shifting through memory, and in concert with the themes of his novel On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, Vuong contends with personal loss, the meaning of family, and the cost of being the product of an American war in America. At once vivid, brave, and propulsive, Vuong’s poems circle fragmented lives to find both restoration as well as the epicenter of the break. The author of the critically acclaimed poetry collection Night Sky With Exit Wounds, winner of the 2016 Whiting Award, the 2017 T. S. Eliot Prize, and a 2019 MacArthur fellow, Vuong writes directly to our humanity without losing sight of the current moment. These poems represent a more innovative and daring experimentation with language and form, illuminating how the themes we perennially live in and question are truly inexhaustible. Bold and prescient, and a testament to tenderness in the face of violence, Time Is a Mother is a return and a forging forth all at once.
Reviews with the most likes.
It took a little while for this book to resonate: it's depressing, and feels a bit like getting pushed down again and again without being able to get back up. But after the first section or so, something about these poems does seem to stop time a little, and I got absorbed in the poet's grief over the death of his mother. I never thought a poem that details an Amazon shopping history could make me so emotional!
However, I'm finding more and more that this particular brand of poetry — filled with obscure hurt, little tangible to hold on to — is less enjoyable to me. It's too opaque. But that's just a preference; this is still a lovely collection that beautifully inhibits the world of grief. Just not so much my cup of tea.
I have grown such a deep appreciation and love for poetry.
This was such a beautiful collection.
“They say the earth spins and that's why we fall but everyone knows it's the music”
I would need multitudes to deconstruct this whole book, but all I needed were a few words to feel.
I am not a frequent poetry reader, but from my experience and some little glimpses into contemporary poetry, this is the top-notch ones of them all. Yet, I only find the pleasure in enjoying some of them, not fully, and so the lack of more details and creativity upon themes is the downgrading bits. For sure I do love the way he uses the words, but whenever the enter button is pressed, I lose my trail to the words. (This is a fine 3! Though a bit placid for me.)
