Madness is all around us, and we're haunted by its multiple heads that hurl echoes of love, despair, and regret into the caverns where we fade. The world is burning, but crickets still keep their symphony swaying with the tall grass. R. Ryöväri's sophomore poetry collection Hydra is a heartfelt declaration of self-worth and belonging upon the charred and frayed paths we share.

By this journey's end, readers will be reminded that there is deliverance from isolation, decay, and the creature in the dark. The blood in us all leaps the same.