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Time Is a Mother
128 pages
A tender, devastating exploration of life in the aftermath of profound loss, rendered in breathtakingly precise language.
What it feels like
Reading this collection feels like sitting in a quiet room with a close friend who is processing a world-shattering loss. The pacing is steady and deliberate, demanding that you linger over each line to absorb its full emotional weight. The mood is undeniably melancholic and grief-soaked, yet it is frequently pierced by moments of luminous beauty and startling tenderness. The language is devastatingly precise, weaving together the raw realities of addiction, queer identity, and the legacy of war with transcendent, lyrical grace. It is a deeply intimate experience that moves from the epicenter of heartbreak toward a fragile, determined survival. This book will profoundly resonate with anyone who appreciates poetry that is as emotionally vulnerable as it is formally inventive.
- Mood
- melancholic
- luminous
- reflective
- grief-soaked
- Tone
- intimate
- elegiac
- vulnerable
- tender
- searching
- Pace
- steady
- Themes
- maternal loss · the weight of grief · queer identity · legacy of war · survival and healing · memory's fragmentation
- The writing
- Lyrical, devastatingly precise, and formally inventive, blending raw vernacular with transcendent imagery.
- The arc
- Moves from the shattering immediacy of profound loss toward a fragile, hard-won determination to survive and find beauty in the aftermath.
- Who it's for
- Readers who seek profound emotional resonance and linguistic beauty, and those who have navigated the complex terrain of grief.
Content notes
- grief
- death of a parent
- substance abuse
- war trauma
- homophobia
About the book
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 personal and social loss, embodying the paradox of sitting in 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 the meaning of family and the cost of being the product of an American war in America. At once vivid, brave, and propulsive, these poems circle fragmented lives to find both restoration as well as the epicenter of the break.
Description from Open Library.
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