Gary Dop
Reviews and Comments on
Father, Child, Water
"Dop’s first collection, Father, Child, Water establishes him as a poet, like Billy Collins, whose work seems to effortlessly share the space of authentic humor and seriousness."
-- NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW (Rachel Morgan)
"The poems in Father, Child, Water by Gary Dop are funny, wicked, and poignant. Dop’s poetic gaze is wide-ranging and piercing. The poems about his father engage with the violence embedded in American masculinity and the character-driven poems are empathic and quirky. A highly enjoyable and memorable book."
-- POETRY MAGAZINE (Eduardo C. Corral)
"In Father, Child, Water, Gary Dop uses plain speech and strong, clear imagery to create musical poems full of insight, love, tenderness, and humor too. This well-wrought, intensely human book will delight people who dont get poetry, as well as those who do."
-- Charles Harper Webb
In Father, Child, Water, Gary Dop "leaves himself and us in the intermediate world of doubt and self-examination. He doesn’t know. In that, each word needs to work for all it’s worth for the speaker to see clearly and yet not assume too much. That exactness with language is really a study of the poet’s character, generous—giving the reader vivid details—yet humble. Those qualities drive this book...."
"Humility and clarity translated into language result in clean, uncluttered verse. The poet eschews overt statements of truth, or expository deliberations...."
"One must admire how the poet, Dop, provides us with just enough information, then lets us live inside the mystery that remains.”
-- NEW LETTERS (Robert Stewart)
"In one of many watershed moments in this vibrant collection, poet Gary Dop writes, 'The world / will unravel, and I'll wonder what my hands / search for in the darkness'. Throughout Father, Child, Water, innocence repeatedly faces off with the terrifying yet clarifying bite of experience and knowledge within the serenely green-filled plains of a deceptively Edenic Midwest. Like a spoiler come to destroy the churchs summer potluck, the institutions of fathering (national, religious, familial) are compassionately questioned here, as Dop navigates patriarchal inheritances of violence and war, while defining his own role as a nurturing father—one seeking to protect and empower his own daughters from the brutal codes of obligatory masculinity. This nuanced book balances these resonant poems of fierce, terror, and love with deft comedy and delightful wit—including monologues in the voices of trickster savants who are not only heartbreaking in their damaged innocence, but hilariously and uncannily shrewd in their cultural critique."
-- Lee Ann Roripaugh
Links to
a few of
my poems
AGNI:
Evander Holyfield's Left Ear Remembers June 28, 1997
THE DR. T.J. ECKLEBERG REVIEW:
In the Margins of the Coroner's Report
PRAIRIE SCHOONER:
AMERICAN LIFE IN POETRY:
RATTLE:
Poem of 4 Explanations to Poems at Poetry Readings
"Gary Dop's remarkable first collection is the work of a mature poet who can make you laugh and break your heartsometimes simultaneously. As wide-ranging as his tone are his subject matter, from theology to pizza delivery; and his style, from richly lyric to hilariously satiric. In the many persona poems, he shows a Dickensian knack for characterization and a stand-ups sense of timing. With Father, Child, Water, Gary Dop's become a player."
-- William Trowbridge
To The Ice Cream Man
I got no green money for your red,
white, and blue bomb pops. You say
they're delectable, and delectable,
I think, means a thousand dime-cicles
plus sugar sparkles. I tasted it
in my head. You said only
really hard, only one dollar,
like dollars is dimes and everybody
can get delectables any time, but
Mom says since Dad got his slip
from Ford we won't have steaks
on Sundays or probably
new backpacks or those shoes
that light up on the back part
when you run. Dad likes
fudge pops and beer. I can run
like lightning, faster than your truck
and your bell. If I grow up
I'll drive a fast car with an ice cream
freezer in the back seat. Nobody
likes your bell.