Time Is a Mother

Vuong (On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous) offers a new collection of poetry that shows him wrestling with grief after the death of his mother. Vuong’s poetry juxtaposes being in a state of grief while also attempting to move past it. This collection explores themes of family, loss, and growing up in America during a time of war. The author narrates this deeply personal collection of poetry, providing depth to each of the poems. The listener is let into his world of personal loss and grief, the search for identity, and what it means to grow up as “other” in America. Vuong also deftly links his own grief and pain with that of society at large, connecting current events. In poems featuring lost loves, car accidents, and deaths, one can hear the pain and the struggle in the writing. However, the listener is also left with a sense of hope that things will get better.