Poems Inspired by Ocean Vuong
#OceanVuong
Poems inspired by the Vietnamese American poet, essayist and novelist Ocean Vuong. Here you'll find poetry using the style or themes found in the writing of Ocean Vuong. Along with poems about Vuong himself, including praise and criticism.
Ahavati
Tams
Tams
Poem Published
29th Jan 2021 8:12pm
29th Jan 2021 8:12pm
The Lost Books
The news announced the sinking ship;
water pushing its metal hull
off a gangplank of the straight
until it crumbled as crystal over rock
Planes spotted flotsam and jetsam
—pinched debris riding a caterpillar
of watery waves inching across the sea—
its waterlogged bite engorged
from strewn pages as leaves
sinking into a survivorless
translucency
Below, a commandeered army
—a delegation of new ghosts
manifesting posthumously
because sometimes Poseidon reads
while sitting peacefully at his desk—
allowing...
water pushing its metal hull
off a gangplank of the straight
until it crumbled as crystal over rock
Planes spotted flotsam and jetsam
—pinched debris riding a caterpillar
of watery waves inching across the sea—
its waterlogged bite engorged
from strewn pages as leaves
sinking into a survivorless
translucency
Below, a commandeered army
—a delegation of new ghosts
manifesting posthumously
because sometimes Poseidon reads
while sitting peacefully at his desk—
allowing...
#war
#sea
#water
#books
#OceanVuong
645 reads
20 Comments
PoetsRevenge
Poem Published
28th Jan 2021 5:46am
28th Jan 2021 5:46am
The Gorgeous Dream
If you must know anything,
know that you were born
because no one else was coming'
- Ocean Vuong
ˇ
Flutterwings:
you know you always escape a day
we never made -- but how
I would find you in every crushing second
I wanted to die
there, looking up at your dire ascent from
these clouds billowing above where I lie;
Stay.
ˇ
I never caught you still but blurry;
lines faded against the backdrop sky, ...
know that you were born
because no one else was coming'
- Ocean Vuong
ˇ
Flutterwings:
you know you always escape a day
we never made -- but how
I would find you in every crushing second
I wanted to die
there, looking up at your dire ascent from
these clouds billowing above where I lie;
Stay.
ˇ
I never caught you still but blurry;
lines faded against the backdrop sky, ...
#mother
#parent
#OceanVuong #freedom
#OceanVuong #freedom
623 reads
10 Comments
wallyroo92
Poem Published
30th Aug 2020 8:54pm
30th Aug 2020 8:54pm
Coyote Ugly
Once the bombs fall and the bullets fly
It’s time to get out of there
There is no diplomacy
There is no law to abide by
There is no process to follow
The instincts to stay alive kick in
While some lost limbs under the train
Others go through desert at night
Trying to avoid the blistering sun
Dying of thirst
looking at plastic gallons of water
spilled on upon the earth
Their vision escaping
Their mission seeming hopeless
As border patrol is approaching…
“Let’s have another...
It’s time to get out of there
There is no diplomacy
There is no law to abide by
There is no process to follow
The instincts to stay alive kick in
While some lost limbs under the train
Others go through desert at night
Trying to avoid the blistering sun
Dying of thirst
looking at plastic gallons of water
spilled on upon the earth
Their vision escaping
Their mission seeming hopeless
As border patrol is approaching…
“Let’s have another...
#sadness
#corruption
#LifeStruggles #OceanVuong
#LifeStruggles #OceanVuong
504 reads
10 Comments
PoetsRevenge
Poem Published
30th Aug 2020 4:32am
30th Aug 2020 4:32am
You Are
I don't know desire other than the need
to be shattered and rebuilt.'
- Ocean Vuong
Raw, a shredded self
ripped from the vine
lands in obscurity
torn from its fruition.
A sky
dims in its awareness.
Thrown, ejected
smearing into unreception
as loneliness seeps
into evey crevice of
your inner wall,
your sanctum,
it burns itself alive.
It writes itself down
in chalk on pavement
just before it rains,
its story untold.
It learns to speak ...
to be shattered and rebuilt.'
- Ocean Vuong
Raw, a shredded self
ripped from the vine
lands in obscurity
torn from its fruition.
A sky
dims in its awareness.
Thrown, ejected
smearing into unreception
as loneliness seeps
into evey crevice of
your inner wall,
your sanctum,
it burns itself alive.
It writes itself down
in chalk on pavement
just before it rains,
its story untold.
It learns to speak ...
#OceanVuong
523 reads
6 Comments
nomoth
Poem Published
25th Aug 2020 10:24pm
25th Aug 2020 10:24pm
'...the basic elements of containment in practise abroad'
the obligation of silence.
all creativity is relevant.
the time it took
between my fingertips
and the dead tv force. if only
I
could
expel the old codes,
the gods and the spaces in between...
absorbed in
hawk training,
and the jesses, anklets and lures,
hung above the crest, on wave, ...
all creativity is relevant.
the time it took
between my fingertips
and the dead tv force. if only
I
could
expel the old codes,
the gods and the spaces in between...
absorbed in
hawk training,
and the jesses, anklets and lures,
hung above the crest, on wave, ...
#love
#wind
#metaphor #OceanVuong
#metaphor #OceanVuong
562 reads
16 Comments
PoetsRevenge
Poem Published
22nd Aug 2020 4:11am
22nd Aug 2020 4:11am
Aubade With Burning City (No Exit)
How something that lives only to fall can be nothing but sweet'
- Ocean Vuong
Say exit, and I won't look down.
Say we will all fall together, laughing.
Say this is a dream that we will wake up from,
never intending this, never walking toward it.
Falling, falling
drifting like snow does in sideways patterns
with random destinations, unknown, unpredicted --
these are the remaining pieces of a way of life.
I was with you before all this ...
- Ocean Vuong
Say exit, and I won't look down.
Say we will all fall together, laughing.
Say this is a dream that we will wake up from,
never intending this, never walking toward it.
Falling, falling
drifting like snow does in sideways patterns
with random destinations, unknown, unpredicted --
these are the remaining pieces of a way of life.
I was with you before all this ...
#sky
#night
#OceanVuong
#Christmas
#NewYear
606 reads
8 Comments
eswaller
Poem Published
11th Aug 2020 00:28am
11th Aug 2020 00:28am
Beautiful Memories (Ocean Vuong Tribute)
I see the lust and hunger in your eyes,
green like the meadows we spend our
summers trampling through as children.
Home… Who would have thought we
would come back to the place where we
began and started. Memories filter in like
all the times we sat on the front porch
waiting and watching. Or when we laid
down on the soft grass and we would
see the stars shatter and break like
bullets going straight for the heart.
Did you know how many times I saw
you cry and how I wished I could do
something about it? I never saw...
green like the meadows we spend our
summers trampling through as children.
Home… Who would have thought we
would come back to the place where we
began and started. Memories filter in like
all the times we sat on the front porch
waiting and watching. Or when we laid
down on the soft grass and we would
see the stars shatter and break like
bullets going straight for the heart.
Did you know how many times I saw
you cry and how I wished I could do
something about it? I never saw...
#love
#memories
#OceanVuong
527 reads
9 Comments
Ahavati
Tams
Tams
Poem Published
7th Aug 2020 4:23pm
7th Aug 2020 4:23pm
Words like Chopper Blades
( After Ocean Vuong, and my father )
. . .once [ the war ] enters you,
it never leaves—but merely echoes. . .*
The war is never over for a soldier.**
Vietnam, 1957
Your eyes, still echoing wide with boy
at 17, resonating violently inside
their soft-shelled socket, your
tripwire tongue severing a moan
buried in her cartilage'd throat, waiting
to explode as a Bouncing Betty
above the surface. Prostitution, makeshift
war-wife,...
. . .once [ the war ] enters you,
it never leaves—but merely echoes. . .*
The war is never over for a soldier.**
Vietnam, 1957
Your eyes, still echoing wide with boy
at 17, resonating violently inside
their soft-shelled socket, your
tripwire tongue severing a moan
buried in her cartilage'd throat, waiting
to explode as a Bouncing Betty
above the surface. Prostitution, makeshift
war-wife,...
#birth
#war
#OceanVuong
747 reads
40 Comments
javalini
Poem Published
4th Aug 2020 1:48pm
4th Aug 2020 1:48pm
SPARED
my disease was loneliness
bubbling up from
a chasm tucked under the ribs
a skeletal soul
repugnant
draped across the wire
as though waiting for redemption
still, the angels
did their best for me
circling my boat
keeping me anchored
praying the gods to blow their storms
to distant places
where harder faces bore their wrath,
fought the good fight
and took their losses
mike and phillip
luke and lisa
all broken by circumstance
ruined or dead...
bubbling up from
a chasm tucked under the ribs
a skeletal soul
repugnant
draped across the wire
as though waiting for redemption
still, the angels
did their best for me
circling my boat
keeping me anchored
praying the gods to blow their storms
to distant places
where harder faces bore their wrath,
fought the good fight
and took their losses
mike and phillip
luke and lisa
all broken by circumstance
ruined or dead...
#OceanVuong
572 reads
13 Comments
anvinvil
Anvillan
Anvillan
Poem Published
3rd Aug 2020 12:49pm
3rd Aug 2020 12:49pm
On Earth We Are Briefly Gorgeous.... Ocean Vuong intpretation
My spirit wonders, yearns
a quest without a destination,
a trip without a map,
clouds block the stars,
the moon hides.
I survive on my loneliness
my pity is fed by my needs,
the need to feel, the need to know.
I’ll drag myself to the forge,
I will hammer out a creation,
perhaps, ever becoming, with
each blow of the hammer.
The anvil will sing the story
of my efforts and the stars
will hear and the clouds
will part.
From the fire of the forge,
from the agony of my soul comes
my...
a quest without a destination,
a trip without a map,
clouds block the stars,
the moon hides.
I survive on my loneliness
my pity is fed by my needs,
the need to feel, the need to know.
I’ll drag myself to the forge,
I will hammer out a creation,
perhaps, ever becoming, with
each blow of the hammer.
The anvil will sing the story
of my efforts and the stars
will hear and the clouds
will part.
From the fire of the forge,
from the agony of my soul comes
my...
#LifeStruggles
#OceanVuong
416 reads
3 Comments
slipalong
Poem Published
3rd Aug 2020 9:11am
3rd Aug 2020 9:11am
Three quarter moon
It's full to be achieved- brashness
some craters still concealed
in life we weave, sun shine upon our seed
as a parent seeks affection
all gleam without the dark
pit's and imperfection
the rind upon the pork
decadence, fatherhood, light the road
reflect on all that's loss
wishes; hold such scant regard
a child's first cry slit between the curtains
moonbeams refreshment, afterbirth covered- falling on chaos
cradled sweet perfection and argument rages to call a spade a...
some craters still concealed
in life we weave, sun shine upon our seed
as a parent seeks affection
all gleam without the dark
pit's and imperfection
the rind upon the pork
decadence, fatherhood, light the road
reflect on all that's loss
wishes; hold such scant regard
a child's first cry slit between the curtains
moonbeams refreshment, afterbirth covered- falling on chaos
cradled sweet perfection and argument rages to call a spade a...
#breakup
#SelfReflection
#OceanVuong
418 reads
5 Comments
anvinvil
Anvillan
Anvillan
Poem Published
2nd Aug 2020 00:22am
2nd Aug 2020 00:22am
Ocean Vuong - Kissing in Vietnamese...
I wake up to the sound of the devil
laughing and hurling death to the
corners of my room. I scream for my family.
I’m forced to observe normalcy
through a fractured pane that used
to be a window. My grandmother
reaches out from the world of torment,
her arms bleeding, her heart broken.
I long for the comfort of old when her
embrace eased my pain which she
absorbed to herself. A bubble formed
protecting me from the violence and
horrors of dying cries and limbs in trees,
from the smell of napalm and burning...
laughing and hurling death to the
corners of my room. I scream for my family.
I’m forced to observe normalcy
through a fractured pane that used
to be a window. My grandmother
reaches out from the world of torment,
her arms bleeding, her heart broken.
I long for the comfort of old when her
embrace eased my pain which she
absorbed to herself. A bubble formed
protecting me from the violence and
horrors of dying cries and limbs in trees,
from the smell of napalm and burning...
#LifeStruggles
#OceanVuong
461 reads
5 Comments
DU Poetry : Poems Inspired by Ocean Vuong
#OceanVuong is curated by Ahavati (Tams).
