Time is a Mother Vuong Ocean (2022)

In this deeply intimate second poetry collection, Ocean Vuong searches for life amid the aftershocks of his mothers death, inhabiting the paradox of grief while remaining determined to survive beyond it. Moving through memory and echoing the themes of his novel On Earth Were Briefly Gorgeous, Vuong explores personal loss, family and the value of joy in a persistently fractured American spirit. His vivid, brave and propulsive poems circle fragmented lives to find both restoration and the epicentre of the break. The collection represents a more daring experimentation with language and form, illuminating how the themes we live in and question remain inexhaustible. Tender in the face of violence, Time Is a Mother is both a return and a forging ahead.