Time Is a Mother

on my journey to understand poetry, probably not the best book to start with, but i still enjoyed what i understood, trying not to turn it into a school assignment and force myself to understand

“The ice retreats, the ground beneath him red and ochre as if an enormous mammal had been opened at his feet.”

There were a few quotes that resonated, but in comparison to Night Sky with Exit Wounds, this book ultimately fell a little flatter for me than expected. I understand that the highly stylized formatting of Vuong's poetry adds meaning to his work, but in this case, it almost felt like a roadblock to accessing the pure, palpable feelings that normally underly his prose. Some of the lines also felt too on-the-nose and almost contrived, but at the same time I can respect Vuong's honesty to his experience and his artistic instinct in this sense.

i honestly like night sky with exit wounds a liiiiittle bit better but this was great

I have grown such a deep appreciation and love for poetry.

This was such a beautiful collection.

This...was absolutely stunning. “Dear Rose” had me in tears and out of breath. This collection is so tender

i guess im in the minority here but (most of) this was forgettable at best and dispassionate at worst. the majority of poems had much less depth than any piece ive read from vuong before and i feel really disappointed by this collection

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.)

I had high expectations for this book but it didn't impress me as much as Ocean Vuong's first poetry collection. Still, it was enjoyable because the writing is great but maybe it was the wrong time for me, but the poems felt a bit all over the place for me. Like I can't quite follow what they're about. I can imagine revisiting this sometime in the future but it's not something I loved right away.

“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.

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.