My copy of Night Sky With Exit Wounds is tattered and torn. Yes, part of this is due to my dog’s penchant for paper. But all of the curled and dog-eared pages, the notes, underscores, and exclamation points scribbled in the margins are an indication of a well-loved book of poetry.

Night Sky was penned by Ocean Vuong, a Vietnamese immigrant whose poetry jarred me to my core. Ocean took me on a journey with a person who is alive, fully alive. We walked through grief, love, life, death, humanity, sadness, shared secrets, light, shadows, wishes, prayers, and wounds that may never heal.

Through his words, we can come to an understanding of our own journey through the vicissitudes of being and the questions that go along with it. His words are a plaintive prayer for answers that never come. Whether he writes to erase or perpetuate, the result is the same. Because after the jaunt through his/our mind, we wind up back where we started – staring at the unattainable horizon.