Ocean Vuong's new poems examine the 'big, big yesterday' since his mother was alive

https://www.npr.org/2022/04/04/ [login to see] /ocean-vuong-time-is-a-mother-new-poetry-death
The poet Ocean Vuong says two years after he lost his mother to cancer, he was feeling "smug in [his] healing" — when the worst moment came.

"One day, I woke up in the middle of the night, two in the morning, and I thought, 'Oh, God, I've got to tell my mom this thing.' I had this brilliant idea and I get out of bed," he told NPR's Rachel Martin.

"I go all the way downstairs in the dark, like a madman. And I turn right into my living room, turn on the light, and I just gasp and I thought, 'Gosh, she's gone.' And I just sat down and sobbed and I wanted to run in every direction at once and just call for her."

He says he learned grief is not linear, and so he returned to the form that brought him the most pleasure: poetry.