Night Sky with Exit Wounds

A beautiful and poignant collection. Everyone should read this.

Delivery was fine but according to me , I didn't like this poetry book so much!

good

One of the most fantastic contemporary poets. A must-read for all true literateurs.

A gifted poet. The writing style is just beautiful and his metaphors are out of this world ❤️❤️

I cannot even stress enough how good this book is

Who am I to review Ocean Vuong! _- _ - _ - * * *- _ - _ - _

torn and rotten piece delivered

love this book, I am writing my dissertation on ocean vuong:)

In 2010 Ocean Vuong offered his first collection of poems – BURNINGS – and this reviewer wrote the following: ‘It is very difficult to read the poetry of Ocean Vuong: he gets inside the marrow and hides there for even a few moldy moments of memories that we've tried to erase. Perhaps not for everyone, this response. Likely for most these poems he collectively and intuitively titles BURNINGS will be simply the virtuosic, luminous constructions of a vividly experienced/inherited life. Ocean Vuong is Vietnamese, now living and writing and teaching in Massachusetts. He was born in Saigon in 1988, well after the US withdrawal of troops from that grossly wrong war, but his parents and grandparents carry the napalm smells and bitter battles in every cell of their bodies: Vuong's inheritance. And now, years away from that fetid error, his poems ask, if not force, us to recall that cancer that will never go away. So for those of us who experienced the Vietnam of which he speaks these poems are pockets of pain and renewed compassion. Ocean Vuong expresses the mind of a refugee as defined as any poet of our time. His poems can arrest the movement of our eyes, forcing them to accept the wrong that cannot be righted. But they can also create strange lullabies he recalls from the past, his past, our past. Vuong's perfectly crafted poems are intensely personal, and intensely universal. What he has to whisper to us sears our eyes and minds like a branding iron, burning. Whether his words are of wars past or present, they are inescapably palpable. This is the work of a gifted cantor, singing of pain, singing of healing.’ NIGHT SKY WITH EXIT WOUNDS, released in 2016, is Ocean’s second major volume of poetry, and returning to it now, in 2021, reiterates just how fine is his gift. He has become one of the more highly regarded men on the literary scene, both as a poet and a novelist, but no matter the form in which his words are dressed, the level of empathy glows. His perfectly crafted poems are intensely personal, and intensely universal. What he has to whisper to us sears our eyes and minds like a branding iron, burning. Whether his words are of wars past or present, they are inescapably palpable. His poems embrace gender choices for lovers, and other needs. The book is successful on all levels and now stands as another trophy in the growing respect for this splendid artist. Very Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, October 21

I want to tattoo this entire text on me so I won't forget it

I cannot recommend this book enough. It is worth every penny and more. Vuong invites us into a space where he is vulnerable and intimate, and I found myself deeply emotional while reading many of the pieces. Finding this poetry collection was a turning point in my own work. Vuong's use of language, line breaks, and striking imagery are fantastic studies for any budding poet, and highly enjoyable to read and analyze. I can't wait for more!

This is a very original collection of poems.The poem‚ Immigrant Haibun’ is a high point. The immigrant poet, from Saigon to the US, describes his watery journey and the reason for his name, Ocean. All in haibun poetic form. Self Portrait as Exit Wounds another achievement, where the migrant wounds are dynamically described. The physical map of his own body, mixed into a geopolitical landscape resonates through this poem, and the collection. It is woven with lifechanging pain.