Last summer, I was hosted by The Desert Rat Residency for Writers in Palm Desert, CA - and during my stay, the dam broke, and I wrote a whole lot of poems. The result is a chapbook called Crow in the Desert. It’s for sale exclusively at their site, and all proceeds go to support the residency.
The official spiel:
The poems of Crow in the Desert are another kind of coming-of-age. "Who are you today, Bryan Borland?" asks an early poem in this chapbook. The answers are provocative and sexy, spiritual and adventurous. The collection balances moments of deep introspection with sensuality and desire, exploring the intersection of body, place, and memory. Themes of transformation and renewal emerge through encounters with nature, from crows and hummingbirds to the desert’s shifting light. With its mix of vulnerability and confidence, Crow in the Desert captures the poet’s journey toward self-acceptance and artistic clarity. It is a meditation on love, loss, and the ongoing process of understanding oneself in a world that is both vast and fleeting. Crow in the Desert is sold exclusively to benefit the Desert Rat Writing Residency, and represents the first publication in Queer Punk Collective, an imprint of Sibling Rivalry Press created in response to the (dis)order of America in 2025.
I’m gonna say - some of these poems would get an “R” rating at the movies or might even get that pretty little explicit lyrics sticker on them if they were an album. A more gentle, safe for your (or my) mama to read book is coming soon, so if you want Angel Bryan, wait on that. But if want the flip side, this one is for you. What can I say? Like Uncle Walt, I contain multitudes.
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