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.
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
571 reads
20 Comments
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
548 reads
10 Comments
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
454 reads
10 Comments
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
480 reads
6 Comments
[ Poet Tributes ] Sometimes a wild cod
will leap out of the water
when you least expect it
smacking your bitch face up
with its tail.
A cod that is an odd kind of god
wearing suspenders of belief
while smoking coral reefer
in Bikini Bottom with his pet snail,
Gary.
Who lives in a pineapple under
the sea? Fuck, I hope it's not me.
This poem is at home on the beach.
Nothing more than an Ocean front.
A shell game by a conch artist.
Bewaring, you should always be erring
on caution's...
when you least expect it
smacking your bitch face up
with its tail.
A cod that is an odd kind of god
wearing suspenders of belief
while smoking coral reefer
in Bikini Bottom with his pet snail,
Gary.
Who lives in a pineapple under
the sea? Fuck, I hope it's not me.
This poem is at home on the beach.
Nothing more than an Ocean front.
A shell game by a conch artist.
Bewaring, you should always be erring
on caution's...
#sea
#beach
#water
#fish
#OceanVuong
481 reads
17 Comments
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
534 reads
8 Comments
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
474 reads
9 Comments
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
693 reads
40 Comments
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
524 reads
13 Comments
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
362 reads
3 Comments
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
372 reads
5 Comments
[ CC ] Gay Say
Because I said so!
And I know
because is not
an answer
I honestly don't
have anyway,
but what else
is there to say
in its stead?
That maurading
Murder Hornet
effects done decapitated
thoraxed solar plexus
causes from my
prevailing cooler head?
Found out the hard
exoskeletoned way
I couldn't bee
anything more than
a hive of one
fun guy loving
guy on guy
gayness.
Not long meant
for this world of
Queen ass kissing ...
And I know
because is not
an answer
I honestly don't
have anyway,
but what else
is there to say
in its stead?
That maurading
Murder Hornet
effects done decapitated
thoraxed solar plexus
causes from my
prevailing cooler head?
Found out the hard
exoskeletoned way
I couldn't bee
anything more than
a hive of one
fun guy loving
guy on guy
gayness.
Not long meant
for this world of
Queen ass kissing ...
#gay
#LGBT
#bees #OceanVuong
#bees #OceanVuong
630 reads
10 Comments
DU Poetry : Poems Inspired by Ocean Vuong
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Ahavati
#OceanVuong is curated by Ahavati.