“Book Descriptions: HAIR SHIRT, Adrian Sobol’s second full-length poetry collection, continues his particular take on poetry. Filled with trademark black humor and absurdity, these poems transport you to a world full of stand-up-performing ghosts, invincible donkeys, surrealist torch songs, murderous priests, horses that execute criminals with math, the bittersweet beauty of the midwest, and—arguably—too much sea. Through a variety of characters, scenarios, and lyrical deftness, HAIR SHIRT offers poems for those who have ever felt intense regret, got drunk on longing, and wondered what art could be found in a life surrounded by such existential debris.
“HAIR SHIRT has a heart made of CVS receipts and anchored by a serial prose poem called ‘Torch Song,’ where longing is packaged in soft surrealism with undertones of Russell Edson and James Tate. ‘If you were an appliance, I’d keep you plugged in,’ Sobol writes. ‘Maybe run my lips across the socket.’ When it’s not finding new ways to yearn, this collection is busy with celebrity sightings before retreating to poetry’s rightful position of incredulity: ‘the loudest people / at this party // won’t stop taking / about how introverted they are.’ If you’ve ever guffawed alone, HAIR SHIRT is for you.”
—Krystal Languell, author of Systems Thinking with Flowers
“Sobol can do no wrong. HAIR SHIRT is a parade of nonstop delights, full of unapologetic pomp and tender pop song-like poems dedicated to the pump and dump culture of the apocalypse. Brilliant and often hilarious, the poems in HAIR SHIRT continue to grow long after you put the book down.”
—Mike Andrelczyk, author of Tennis Leg and !!!” DRIVE
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