What do you think?
You're Going to Be OK:
Social media sensation Darby Hudson offers this collection of encouraging and humorous reflections to encourage others to continue expressing themselves, no matter what.
You're Going to Be OK is a book on art, jobs, magic and muddling through. These hand-typed fragments were gathered by the train tracks at night over ten years, after author Darby Hudson worked meaningless jobs, trying to make sense of a strange world that insisted it was "perfectly normal." The observations in You're Going to Be OK are little fragments of collected wisdom that sit somewhere between poetry, comedy and aphorism. With sixty new poems, this updated edition includes even more of Hudson's reflections to enjoy.
You're Going to Be OK is a book on art, jobs, magic and muddling through. These hand-typed fragments were gathered by the train tracks at night over ten years, after author Darby Hudson worked meaningless jobs, trying to make sense of a strange world that insisted it was "perfectly normal." The observations in You're Going to Be OK are little fragments of collected wisdom that sit somewhere between poetry, comedy and aphorism. With sixty new poems, this updated edition includes even more of Hudson's reflections to enjoy.
172 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 3, 2026
About the author
Darby Hudson
14 books87 followersWriter from Melbourne, Australia.
"Darby, Love..." published by Andrews McMeel.
Previously published in Best Australian Poems.
Instagram: @darby_hudson
Substack: @darbyhudson
"Darby, Love..." published by Andrews McMeel.
Previously published in Best Australian Poems.
Instagram: @darby_hudson
Substack: @darbyhudson
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
May 7, 2026
Every single piece in this collection felt like a pearl.
There’s such a humble humanity running through these poems. They manage to hold grief, love, exhaustion, tenderness, and the dark comedy of being alive all at once. So much of it captures the painful absurdity of life in a way that feels deeply honest rather than performative.
Simple without being shallow. Emotional without becoming self indulgent. I found myself constantly stopping to underline lines and reread passages.
One of those rare collections where not a single piece felt wasted.
An easy five stars. I want to buy every one I love a copy!
There’s such a humble humanity running through these poems. They manage to hold grief, love, exhaustion, tenderness, and the dark comedy of being alive all at once. So much of it captures the painful absurdity of life in a way that feels deeply honest rather than performative.
Simple without being shallow. Emotional without becoming self indulgent. I found myself constantly stopping to underline lines and reread passages.
One of those rare collections where not a single piece felt wasted.
An easy five stars. I want to buy every one I love a copy!
August 30, 2026
Hopefully stoic. Realistically dreamy. Honestly Raw. Human to the core.
January 1, 2026
Five loud, gaudy, emotive stars for this absolute gem.
Every page. line. and turn of word.
Soundly, immediately, one of a small few of my BEST reads of 2025.
Highlighted so much in this one. so much. and writing lines down for Later's reflection.
Ordering a paper copy in order to re(and re and re and re)read this one, vigorously wearing out the margins with pen and highlighter.
[Thank you, Edelweiss, for the DRC copy. Very much appreciated.]
Every page. line. and turn of word.
Soundly, immediately, one of a small few of my BEST reads of 2025.
Highlighted so much in this one. so much. and writing lines down for Later's reflection.
Ordering a paper copy in order to re(and re and re and re)read this one, vigorously wearing out the margins with pen and highlighter.
[Thank you, Edelweiss, for the DRC copy. Very much appreciated.]
December 1, 2024
As bohemian as it gets
This volume does to the reader exactly what writing it did to the writer–pause and reflect on life's futility and the beauty of the mundane. After reading it you feel less misunderstood, less lonely and slightly cured of the self-imposed guilt of the human condition.
This volume does to the reader exactly what writing it did to the writer–pause and reflect on life's futility and the beauty of the mundane. After reading it you feel less misunderstood, less lonely and slightly cured of the self-imposed guilt of the human condition.
August 9, 2026
Read on kindle. I’m not normally into poetry but I loved this book. Sweet and short read
March 17, 2026
Absolute gold.
October 6, 2024
You're Going to Be OK is like reading the thoughts you have at 2 a.m. when you’re trying to figure out life, but can’t quite make sense of it. Darby Hudson captures those raw, unpolished moments perfectly—his words aren’t meant to fix you, they just sit with you in the mess. There’s no grand answer here, just little pieces of truth that make you feel understood. Hudson’s voice is so real, so human, it’s like he’s lived through the same chaos and confusion you have. If you’ve ever felt like you’re piecing things together without knowing what the bigger picture is, this book will hit you in all the right places. It’s simple, raw, and exactly what you need when everything feels upside down.
October 27, 2024
There were so many poems in this book that made me audibly laugh out loud. Cackle really. Would recommend tearing through this after you have one of those weirdo days when you’ve been flat-out at work but can’t quite remember anything you did. I felt seen. Darby you are a legend.
December 5, 2024
So wise it’s stupid
Darby’s poems let me know I’m not alone but some of them are spookily like my own thoughts to the point where I’m not sure he hasn’t been taking photos of my brain. Read them in seconds and think about them for days.
Darby’s poems let me know I’m not alone but some of them are spookily like my own thoughts to the point where I’m not sure he hasn’t been taking photos of my brain. Read them in seconds and think about them for days.
January 21, 2025
A very fun collection of thoughts and ideas of which I can both relate to and appreciate the differences in the way the authors mind may operate in contrast with my own with a reminder to stay weird.
May 23, 2025
Faux profound
June 23, 2026
A great reminder to release ourselves from our flesh prisons. Fear keeps them locked, acting as blinders that obscure the key to our escape: simplicity.
Favourite Poems:
Page 64: "When I was first handed homework at the age of ten, suddenly a tomorrow existed, and I was expected to smuggle a new and improved version of me into the next day for the rest of my life. "Right now" was gone forever, and I was trapped in the endless cycles of tomorrow."
Page 76: "People walk around planning their sadness while missing out on all the unplanned happiness."
Page 84: "Reality is mostly founded on the forced acceptance of horseshit. Reality isn't natural; it's human-made, normalized ridiculousness. Sure, sometimes I feel the need to check in on reality and see how it's holding up. But after I do, I realize it's doing just fine without me."
Page 91: "I lie in bed mid-afternoon and, like a large bookmark for my life, fold the page of the blanket across my body and take a nap"
Page 95: "I often get to the end of the day thinking I've forgotten to take something with me into tomorrow. Then I remember: I forgot to be me today. I left myself back in childhood. That's why sometimes I wake at 3 A.M and catch up on being me for a few decades in the space of five minutes"
Page 102: "I need routine to keep me sane. But too much routine is a slow death. So I need some chaos to feel alive. But too much of that and it's a fast death. So I'm always walking a tightrope between the living dead and total insanity- a slow death versus a fast one, existing versus living. And that's the exhausting behind-the-scenes magical balancing act I do to pretend I am a normal person."
Page 107: "Most responsibility is just a fancy leash tied to fake "important trouble" to support a fake reality. The world's endless creation of fashionable, new, fake problems keeps the idiots busy."
Page 108: "My drunk self deeply regrets all my sober decisions."
Page 117: "Life kinda like walking through a series of doors and rooms, one after another. At the beginning of life, the doors are small but lead to big rooms. Then the doors get bigger, more prestigious, but they lead to increasingly smaller rooms. And at the peak of your so-called life's success, you walk through the largest, grandest, most ornate door and into the smallest, cell-sized room. You want to cry. You're beaten and tired. There's just enough room to drop to your knees. And when you do, you notice the tiniest door on the back wall, to a new life, a new world."
Page 142: "People subconsciously take photos of moments to forget them- outsoiurce memories. One day, they will resurface as lost or missing posters: "Have you seen this sunset?""
Page 143: "I am the traffic that I am stuck in because I was stupid enough to have exactly the same idea as everyone else. So I took the back roads at night for thirty years."
Page 147: "We borrow fear from our phones. And to fix it, we borrow courage from books. Someone's always turning a page or scrolling a phone. We've become intermediaries between other people's ideas, forgetting to borrow from ourselves until we don't know who we are."
page 158: "Current Culture: Fake it until you're completely fake."
Page 171: "I swapped my phone for a twig for a day. A stupid twig! and life's magic actually returned. I'm sitting there holding this stick on the couch, and I could feel it connecting to the cosmic wi-fi or some vast shit-the tree it fell from, the modem, kicked in. I had better reception on that twig than I do with my phone. And it felt really good. It recharged my heart's battery and was $1,000. Cheaper than my phone. It even felt nice having it beside my bed while I was asleep. I didnt mind at all that it listened in on me sleep-talking shit and sent me ads for nature walks in my dreams."
Favourite Poems:
Page 64: "When I was first handed homework at the age of ten, suddenly a tomorrow existed, and I was expected to smuggle a new and improved version of me into the next day for the rest of my life. "Right now" was gone forever, and I was trapped in the endless cycles of tomorrow."
Page 76: "People walk around planning their sadness while missing out on all the unplanned happiness."
Page 84: "Reality is mostly founded on the forced acceptance of horseshit. Reality isn't natural; it's human-made, normalized ridiculousness. Sure, sometimes I feel the need to check in on reality and see how it's holding up. But after I do, I realize it's doing just fine without me."
Page 91: "I lie in bed mid-afternoon and, like a large bookmark for my life, fold the page of the blanket across my body and take a nap"
Page 95: "I often get to the end of the day thinking I've forgotten to take something with me into tomorrow. Then I remember: I forgot to be me today. I left myself back in childhood. That's why sometimes I wake at 3 A.M and catch up on being me for a few decades in the space of five minutes"
Page 102: "I need routine to keep me sane. But too much routine is a slow death. So I need some chaos to feel alive. But too much of that and it's a fast death. So I'm always walking a tightrope between the living dead and total insanity- a slow death versus a fast one, existing versus living. And that's the exhausting behind-the-scenes magical balancing act I do to pretend I am a normal person."
Page 107: "Most responsibility is just a fancy leash tied to fake "important trouble" to support a fake reality. The world's endless creation of fashionable, new, fake problems keeps the idiots busy."
Page 108: "My drunk self deeply regrets all my sober decisions."
Page 117: "Life kinda like walking through a series of doors and rooms, one after another. At the beginning of life, the doors are small but lead to big rooms. Then the doors get bigger, more prestigious, but they lead to increasingly smaller rooms. And at the peak of your so-called life's success, you walk through the largest, grandest, most ornate door and into the smallest, cell-sized room. You want to cry. You're beaten and tired. There's just enough room to drop to your knees. And when you do, you notice the tiniest door on the back wall, to a new life, a new world."
Page 142: "People subconsciously take photos of moments to forget them- outsoiurce memories. One day, they will resurface as lost or missing posters: "Have you seen this sunset?""
Page 143: "I am the traffic that I am stuck in because I was stupid enough to have exactly the same idea as everyone else. So I took the back roads at night for thirty years."
Page 147: "We borrow fear from our phones. And to fix it, we borrow courage from books. Someone's always turning a page or scrolling a phone. We've become intermediaries between other people's ideas, forgetting to borrow from ourselves until we don't know who we are."
page 158: "Current Culture: Fake it until you're completely fake."
Page 171: "I swapped my phone for a twig for a day. A stupid twig! and life's magic actually returned. I'm sitting there holding this stick on the couch, and I could feel it connecting to the cosmic wi-fi or some vast shit-the tree it fell from, the modem, kicked in. I had better reception on that twig than I do with my phone. And it felt really good. It recharged my heart's battery and was $1,000. Cheaper than my phone. It even felt nice having it beside my bed while I was asleep. I didnt mind at all that it listened in on me sleep-talking shit and sent me ads for nature walks in my dreams."
May 16, 2026
4⭐️ (closer to 3.5)
I have the same experience every time I read Instapoets, but I keep doing it anyway. Will I learn? No. And these poems explain why.
Hudson is right on the edge of producing some beautiful work. I wish he could attend a workshop and get through some of the technical stuff that’s holding him back. He has here some gems, for sure. Some of my favorites:
MONEY BUYS YOU A ROOF;
POETRY BUYS YOU A FLOOR SO YOU DON'T FALL THROUGH THE NIGHTS.
🌱
IT ONLY TAKES A SMALL AMOUNT OF TROUBLE TO SET A POEM ALIGHT.
🌱
THE WORLD WANTS YOU TO TURN ON YOURSELF AND PRETEND IT'S FOR YOUR OWN GOOD.
BECAUSE YOU'RE DANGEROUS WHEN YOU
MAKE SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL.
These are overshadowed by unfortunately strong echoes of other instapoets like Rupi Kaur and Amanda Lovelace.
Hudson also tends to intermingle his verse with emotional journaling which lacks poetic compression. For me, this was jarring; the pieces would have been better served by separating the book into two separate sections.
Iowa, can you make room for him? He’s got talent.
I borrowed this book from my public library. The resources that your library has to offer will depend on its size and funding, which comes in part from taxpayer dollars and donor funds. These perks are part of the public library's mission to serve the needs of the local community, says Joan Johnson, library director at Milwaukee Public Library. "Libraries are one of the most important parts of the social infrastructure. The possibilities for how you explore are endless." Support yours!
I have the same experience every time I read Instapoets, but I keep doing it anyway. Will I learn? No. And these poems explain why.
Hudson is right on the edge of producing some beautiful work. I wish he could attend a workshop and get through some of the technical stuff that’s holding him back. He has here some gems, for sure. Some of my favorites:
MONEY BUYS YOU A ROOF;
POETRY BUYS YOU A FLOOR SO YOU DON'T FALL THROUGH THE NIGHTS.
🌱
IT ONLY TAKES A SMALL AMOUNT OF TROUBLE TO SET A POEM ALIGHT.
🌱
THE WORLD WANTS YOU TO TURN ON YOURSELF AND PRETEND IT'S FOR YOUR OWN GOOD.
BECAUSE YOU'RE DANGEROUS WHEN YOU
MAKE SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL.
These are overshadowed by unfortunately strong echoes of other instapoets like Rupi Kaur and Amanda Lovelace.
Hudson also tends to intermingle his verse with emotional journaling which lacks poetic compression. For me, this was jarring; the pieces would have been better served by separating the book into two separate sections.
Iowa, can you make room for him? He’s got talent.
I borrowed this book from my public library. The resources that your library has to offer will depend on its size and funding, which comes in part from taxpayer dollars and donor funds. These perks are part of the public library's mission to serve the needs of the local community, says Joan Johnson, library director at Milwaukee Public Library. "Libraries are one of the most important parts of the social infrastructure. The possibilities for how you explore are endless." Support yours!
February 24, 2026
This wonderful collection of poetry, aphorisms, and bite-size soul knowledge is a whimsical journey. Presented a la Tyler Knott Gregson style typewriter creations, Hudson’s words are much more raw, existentialist musings on what it means to be alive in a universe that truly doesn’t care about you. It was here first, after all. The beauty in this is in Hudson’s optimism that hums beneath each of these creations, and unlike Gregson, there is a deeper nihilism with a sliver of gold lining each piece. Hudson acknowledges how f’ up everything is (it is in the subtitle, after all) and then takes a big breath in and reminds us what the true meaning(s) of life are in the face of such gloom and despair. We learn life is ugly, but worth living. That the salve is love, and art, and words, and time, and freedom. It reminds us how absolutely free we are, full stop, and that everything that says otherwise exists only to confuse and confound the true core of every heartbeat and interaction. It is all a game, and we can recognize that and opt out. Gregson created sappy, sentimental nonsense that was so sweet it gave you cavities. Hudson took the same idea, and thankfully, helps us all fly.
You're Going To Be Okay's American Edition comes from Andrew McMeel on March 3, 2026.
You're Going To Be Okay's American Edition comes from Andrew McMeel on March 3, 2026.
March 25, 2026
“Life's kinda like walking through a series of doors and rooms, one after another.
At the beginning of life, the doors are small but lead to big rooms. Then the doors get bigger, more prestigious, but they lead to increasingly smaller rooms. And at the peak of your so-called life's success, you walk through the largest, grandest, most ornate door and into the smallest cell-sized room.
You want to cry. You're beaten and tired. There's just enough room to drop to your knees. And when you do, you notice the tiniest door on the back wall, to a new iife, a new worid.”
Straight flames, read this x
At the beginning of life, the doors are small but lead to big rooms. Then the doors get bigger, more prestigious, but they lead to increasingly smaller rooms. And at the peak of your so-called life's success, you walk through the largest, grandest, most ornate door and into the smallest cell-sized room.
You want to cry. You're beaten and tired. There's just enough room to drop to your knees. And when you do, you notice the tiniest door on the back wall, to a new iife, a new worid.”
Straight flames, read this x
August 30, 2026
I'm not much of a poem reader, but I couldn't pass on this title. I don't consider this a book of poems; it more random thoughts that sometimes fall in poem form or just land on a page. I enjoyed the honesty of the fucked up world we live in...
One of my favorites:
Sure, strive to be better
Than
You were yesterday.
But remember to massively
Fuck up from time to
Time to
Reset the difficulty level.
One of my favorites:
Sure, strive to be better
Than
You were yesterday.
But remember to massively
Fuck up from time to
Time to
Reset the difficulty level.
July 19, 2026
A collection of big thoughts, presented in an exceptionally succinct way.
A page or two a day of Darby Hudson’s ‘You’re going to be OK (because you’re f*cked no matter what)’ will give you pause for thought; a reason to smile; a punch on the shoulder when you’re taking yourself too seriously. Wonderful stuff.
A page or two a day of Darby Hudson’s ‘You’re going to be OK (because you’re f*cked no matter what)’ will give you pause for thought; a reason to smile; a punch on the shoulder when you’re taking yourself too seriously. Wonderful stuff.
August 21, 2026
As I started reading it on my Kindle, I started screenshotting all the poems I liked. At some point I figured out that I'd started screenshotting almost every poem, and decided to stop and just reread the book (or any poem for that matter) whenever I want to remember all the gems I read.
Love this man!
Love this man!
September 14, 2026
My god, this is great. So many brilliant passages. Just the right mix of humor, sarcasm, wisdom, and poignant observation. It’s the book I think I have in me, but could never. Absolutely loved it, will definitely read again and likely gift to people. Wow.
January 10, 2025
This little book of big truths has found its new home on my work desk. Perfect for those seeking a dose of grounded perspective in a world obsessed with perfection.
March 31, 2026
I didn’t find this book. This book found me. Today to be more exact. And I’m glad we’ve found each other.
May 6, 2026
Love it
May 7, 2026
Loved it!
May 28, 2026
Short, simple and pleasant.
A few genuinely lovely poems.
A few genuinely lovely poems.
July 21, 2026
Happy this book found me
August 8, 2026
This will be a book of poems that I will re-read and re-read over.
The words fell right where they needed to.
The words fell right where they needed to.
August 16, 2026
Need to reread on paper instead of audiobook because wow, I need to properly process the ridiculous wisdom he put in there
September 15, 2026
So delightful and real and honest.
I know not everyone can probably appreciate Darby's approach, but I sure do. I laughed, I cried, I nodded in agreement so many times.
Love this book!
I know not everyone can probably appreciate Darby's approach, but I sure do. I laughed, I cried, I nodded in agreement so many times.
Love this book!
April 1, 2026
I really enjoyed this book. Little snippets of magic, Hope and sadness in a wrapper of wonder and sass.
I found Hudson’s poetry on a social media platform at a particularly difficult time in my life. Reading “You’re Going To Be Ok…” was like sitting and getting drunk with a familiar friend. Lots of introspection and honesty punctuated with sarcasm, shit talking and a little bit of vomit. Which is to say, I loved it.
I found Hudson’s poetry on a social media platform at a particularly difficult time in my life. Reading “You’re Going To Be Ok…” was like sitting and getting drunk with a familiar friend. Lots of introspection and honesty punctuated with sarcasm, shit talking and a little bit of vomit. Which is to say, I loved it.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews