The Hermit Thrush

Poetry zine containing 10 new pieces. Comes with a full-color fold-out 11" x 17" cover.

"Daryl Gussin’s new collection of poems comes with all the rage and love one might come to expect from him, were one in the habit of expecting things of the artists we love. Defying stability, but not consistency (as the first poem explicitly explores), Daryl’s words expect nothing but that life will, sometimes, be shit. And though he comes at us with no expectation that we will have the answers or even give enough of a shit to try to change some of the obscene forces that micromanage our daily lives, he asks but four things of us in one: “Be safe, be honest, be giving, and be gone.” Humble expectations that most of us, most of the time, fail. There’s a mundanity to this collection, and a meandering—and I mean this in the sense of the best sensibilities of the Beats ripping off Zen—though not Zen precisely this far down the line and our lives are split in so many directions it all either has too much or too little meaning. In this work we can only watch. We might, too, think; we might, too, see ourselves; we might, too, carry on in the erotics of storm drains and a free meal at the worst job interview of your life; we might, too, write through the pain into something, finally, like joy. " –jimmy cooper, Razorcake