Poet Ocean Vuong shares his grief in 'Time Is A Mother'

This week, we're celebrating National Poetry Month by revisiting some of our favorite conversations with poets. Ocean Vuong's collection, Time Is A Mother, is about his grief after losing family members. Vuong told NPR's Rachel Martin that time is different now that he has lost his mother: "when I look at my life since she died in 2019, I only see two days: Today when she's not here, and the big, big yesterday when I had her." To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookoftheday See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy

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Poet Ocean Vuong shares his grief in 'Time Is A Mother' is an episode from NPR's Book of the Day by NPR.

This episode is 8:07 long.

This episode was published on Apr 20, 2026.

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