Time is a Mother

KADISH MORRIS, THE OBSERVER (UK)

"There's something about Vuong's writing that demands all of your lungs. The succinct line arrangement and absence of full stops in poems such as 'Dear Rose' force you to breathe heavy ... Being led by urge and compulsion feels central to the emotional landscape of Time Is a Mother, sometimes to the point of recklessness. The painterly opener, 'The Bull', sets the tone for this sense of wild abandon ... Underneath the macabre scenes is an innocent curiosity and thirst for truth and beauty. These ghost poems are about the cavernous corners of loss, grief, abandonment, trauma and war, but that doesn't result in nihilism or apathy for life; in fact, Vuong approaches death like an entrance rather than an ending."