Time Is a Mother

By: Ocean Vuong

Narrated by: Ocean Vuong

"Take your time with these poems, and return to them often.” —The Washington Post

The New York Times-bestselling 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 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.

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 fellowship, 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.

Another Amazing Ocean Vuong

How he writes is incredible. How he makes you feel is incredible. True art. incredible.

solomn

loved the real details told by the story teller and hear the pain and victories in the world

Exaltation

Another incredible, indelible work from Vuong. Just cant get enough— their words, their voice! All to die for.

bold use of language

I was floored by the depth of artistry in this book, how language can incorporate so much violence even as we try to honor our dead. Just incredible.

Ocean Vuong needs no review!

Touching, compelling, moving! Ocean Vuong is at his best as a poet, and this is his best poetry collection to date.