A Beanie and a Cup of Tea

“Does any human pain match the grief of losing one’s child? Larry Dunn’s poems about the death of his beloved son Seth echo and warp with deep feeling and understated intelligence. His determination to avoid both sentimentality and a predictable ‘healing’ narrative enriches a book that shows as well as tells—in Dunn’s words—that ‘poetry doesn’t only comfort the tortured soul; it gives voice to it.’”


—Jeff Gundy, author of Spoken Among the Trees





“I seldom read a book of poetry in one sitting, but this was an exception. Dunn’s poetry helps me access the places where my human understanding is inadequate, where the tangible meets the intangible. Whether we find ourselves collapsing into love—or, more often, perhaps, just collapsing—his poems spin out the delicate threads of hope that I need, and which I suspect we all do.”


—Hope Nisly, retired Librarian, Fresno Pacific University





“Larry Dunn notes there are only two things to write poems about: love and loss. He offers a 360-degree view of the deep love of a father for his son whom he loses too soon. His poetry, utilizing a variety of forms, is raw and achingly honest. His words are economical yet reveal a full story . . . . Dunn’s poetry flies straight from his heart to our own.”


—Fran Martens Friesen, Assistant Professor of English, Fresno Pacific University





“These raw, aching, tear-soaked, sometimes humorous, always love-drenched poems offer no wrapped-up-tight clichés on healing. These poems tell Dunn’s story that opens into our stories, that opens into the universal story of love and loss. Dunn speaks of poetry arriving to him as a gift—he has given us a gift.”


—Julia Baker-Swann, author of The Moon Is Always Whole