https://shawjonathan.com/2023/03/13/ocean-vuongs-time-is-a-mother/ ( )

it is a good book.

I don't read a lot of poetry, and often feel that while I understand the conventions of poetry, I am missing whatever is required to feel the work. So with that disclaimer here are my thoughts.

I loved Vuong's On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, his language and once so stunningly beautiful even when reflecting on ugly, sometimes repellent, things transported me. Vuong does the same thing here, sometimes successfully, sometimes less so. When Vuong frontally addresses his grief (over so many things) he is at his best. He does that in my favorite poems, Not Even, Nothing, Kuntslerroman, Dear Rose, and American Legend. There is not one form where he focuses his efforts, rather he slides from form to form, and plays around with the forms he chooses to boot. I for one would have appreciated a little less messing around with form, fewer hyphens would have been nice, but it was not a major matter IMO. For me, the measure of success of individual poems in this collection is how squarely he addresses the jumble of grief and pain and fear in his head without connecting it to other things. I felt that the more he tried to connect those feelings with larger concerns about the planet (this comes up a lot and I thought it rarely worked) or humanity at large the less successful the work became.

A worthwhile collection, but not as transcendent at his last effort. ( )

Vuong’s second book of poetry deals with the way the passage of time impacts relationships between people. Both sad and happy, violent and gentle, his poems reflect such experiences as shoveling snow with a loved one in “Nothing”. He draws on his own experiences, but the themes explored are universal. ( )