A Deep and Gorgeous Thirst discussion

"A Deep & Gorgeous Thirst is for anyone who's ever had a drinking buddy -- and who hasn't? A perfect elegy to the illusions and delusions of alcohol. A book to be tasted and savored.”

—Mark SaFranko, author of Hating Olivia, and No Strings

“In his full-length work of narrative poems about drinking and all that surrounds it, McCreesh sets out to pull hard on the reader’s empathy and nostalgia, and, by and large, he succeeds. Presented through a decidedly male gaze, these poems are easily relatable to anyone who has ever had a drinking buddy, or anyone who has ever drowned the pain of a broken heart with a case of PBR, or anyone who has ever experimented with alcohol, fought with others or themselves while drunk, or told stories, mourned lost friends, or fell in love—or out of it—with a drink in their hand. Throughout, the narrators are naturalistic and kind-voiced, and the book is ordered chronologically, albeit loosely, beginning with first time drinkers dipping, unwittingly, into their mother’s homemade vinegar until they pass out. Months later, they learn of their blunder through an older brother: “‘Dear god man,’ you say,/’why the hell/ didn’t you/ stop us?’//And your brother says, ‘You looked like you/knew what you were/doing.’”And soon the boys grow up and their interests shift to girls who soon dump them and so they buddy up, booze up, and escape to places like the desert where “there/are no girls/to be found/out here,” and where they can get a moment’s reprieve from “the dull and/incessant/ doom” of their existences. McCreesh returns often to these drinking buddy bromances where jaded boys fall into bottles and then each other, commiserating, laughing, and sometimes raising hell: “And when the other bouncers/finally found the fray, when they/maced the lot of you, and/pulled out knives of their own,/you swear you could hear/angels singing, and you once again/knew you’d live.” Despite its overt love of all things alcohol, what the book truly celebrates is human bonds and shared experiences where “your eyes start/watering as you/drown on a/laugh.” And perhaps this is McCreesh’s greatest accomplishment with this work, that instead of taking the low road and merely sensationalizing the act of drinking, he deftly draws the focus to the idea that we’re here and it’s now and we’re all in this together. Along with a sense of responsibility, it also gives the book a great and surprising heart.”

—Mel Bosworth, author of Every Laundromat in the World and Freight

“McCreesh has done something extraordinary with his latest book; a memoir in poetry. Dispensing with the pretense of “autobiographical”, McCreesh presents the reader with the real deal; my life and interactions with those people who have mattered most in his life. There is a lot of drinking and carrying on in this collection, but the purpose, the tone of this book, is one of a celebration. Even at his most incautious, most hung over, McCreesh refuses to wallow, to dwell in a decadent world of squalor and self-pity. If there is any truth to the assertion, “the best friends you will ever have in your life are your drinking buddies,” A Deep and Gorgeous Thirst affirms that contention. Read on and let the good times roll.” --Alan Catlin poet, Alien Nation

"…granted not quite a review of his new work published by Artistically Declined Press   but I guess more of a tribute to the style, to  the talent and courage to break away from the artistic boundaries that identified a Hosho McCreesh poem in  the past.  There are no labels found here. It is an  unmarked brand.  It is new.  It is fresh as the born date on a bottle of Bud.  This book is breaking ranks.  Drink up.”
—Scot Young, Editor, Rusty Truck

“These may be the best (and certainly the most) drinking poems I’ve read in twenty years (which, coincidentally, was when I stopped writing them myself, because I’d stopped drinking).   Hosh has colloquial dialogue (and monologue) down as close to perfect as it can get, and there’s a highly congenial tone to it all, no matter what stage of the bottle(s) the revelers find themselves.  Great fun for all.  And no morning-after…for the reader!”

—Gerald Locklin

"The poems in A Deep & Gorgeous Thirst are fast and loose, boisterous and fanciful, light, buoyant, humorous, yet strong  — stream of consciousness, yet paradoxically well placed with careful precision and years of practice.  In other words, McCreesh is complex  — drunkenly, humorously, darkly complex.  There is vulgarity, angst, failed drunken-barroom logic, rowdy college-level backroom humor smoothed over with a sensibility that seems otherworldly in its humble juxtaposition.  If you're a fan of McCreesh, this is different, but I urge you to try it all the same.  There isn't a rigid, brooding madness at the world here, but a lighthearted jabbing at the self, a nod to the futility of it all, an acknowledgment of the complexities that exist in the unflappable human spirit just as in the bottom of a mug of beer at your first rodeo or a bottle of white wine in the garage ... or was that your mom's homemade vinegar jar full of floating vegetables and dill seeds?  McCreesh may not have a clue what he's actually drinking, but he's clearly mastered how to tell you about it."

— Leah Angstman, Editor of the journals Poiesis and Footnote, publisher at Alternating Current, and author of Sirens Call the Sailors, Single Ply and Soaked Through, Some Misplaced Joan of Arc, and No One Gains Weight in the Shoulders.