Through white sand, his knuckles carving a trail Night Sky With Exit Wounds is a book of great patience and intelligence and is worthy of the reader’s trust. Ocean Vuong was easing my way into, and directing my way out of, one of the most honest and brave poetry collections I’ve ever read.

The opening poem was subtle, as the closing poem is subtle. It doesn’t need to be the greatest hit in the collection.” I re-read the poems. Derrick said “The opening poem is welcoming the reader into the book, it is an introduction, a greeting. I asked Derrick to read the first two poems for me. My friend Derrick Austin was sitting across from me. I liked the verbs and the motion and the panic in the second poem “Telemachus” more. I thought the opening poem, “Threshold,” was too broad and vague for an entry way into the book. I wanted to be floored from the first poem to the last, no room for blunders. When I first opened Night Sky With Exit Wounds I was worried the book wouldn’t measure up to its hype. Night Sky With Exit Wounds is a must read and re-read, a book that will be cherished. He stands at the feet of American poetry and unties the masters’ shoelaces.

Ocean Vuong creates and poses alternate universes within these poems. Night Sky With Exit Wounds is terrifying, heartbreaking, surreal, and lyrical–I’m not quite sure how a poet can fit so much humanity into so few words. How do you pay homage to a poet who has lived through some of the experiences described in Night Sky With Exit Wounds? I want to thank Ocean Vuong for his strength, for all that he has overcome, for the beauty of his writing in the midst of such chaos.

‘Night Sky with Exit Wounds’ by Ocean Vuong

The night sky with exit wounds