Daniel McGinn

About Daniel McGinn’s latest book, The Moon, My Lover, My Mother & The Dog:

book coverLike the Beatles, these poems aren’t afraid to talk to girls. They aren’t afraid to talk to dogs, or kids, or the Moon, or the dying, or even the dead. Believe it or not, they aren’t even afraid to talk on the phone. Each poem in this collection speaks directly to me with landline clarity. They harken to the bravest side of us all. Wakening the part that isn’t afraid to look love in the eye and listen without flinching.

Daniel McGinn makes pain beautiful, again. His soothing voice tells us it’s good to feel. It’s good to cry. It is good to love. It is good to love until it hurts. It’s okay to feel helpless or hopeless; Nothing lasts forever. He teaches us to never give up on anyone, not even ourselves. Everyday we have breath in our lungs and a poodle in our lap is another day to get to know someone better and understand something more fully. Most poets use their best lies to tell the only truth they can stomach. Daniel McGinn wields a flagrant truth in every word: conveying a breadth and depth of experience that feels personal and universal. The old adage “you can’t make this stuff up,” comes to mind at every line break. Daniel is an omniscient and trust worthy narrator, laying bare his loves and his life—Every poem is a confessional. Every poem unconditionally forgives and redeems. And the poet in him is born again; each poem feels fresh as the first, but at the same time treated with care and frankness, as if it might be his last chance to impart all he knows before you have to hang up the phone.

Dear reader, you will become old friends with this profound collection. It will time and time, again remind you of how perfectly imperfect you and everyone you’ve ever met is. It will put everything in perspective like a good family reunion might. It will become the big brother you’ve always wished you had.

–Raundi Moore-Kondo-Founder of For The Love of Words Writing Collective