The Northern Mississippi
After St. Anthony Falls
under the Stone Arch Bridge,
the bounding river
is a thousand grasshoppers.
Recent Events:
Gary wrote and acted in a humorous spoof of the television show Undercover Boss for HighJump Software.
All Things Considered , on public radio, aired Gary's short, comedic essay on his relationship with Netflix, and another essay on a more somber topic .
After the Tornado of '62, Indianola Iowa
Barbara, the 4H cow, lumbers in a circle
around the empty trough. The boy finds
his no-jump pony Trigger grazing
two fences and fields away. The clouds pull
the moldy sky toward Pickard's Park
as the boy and his father walk in silence
through the mess of farm, the milk barn split
to splinters and stones. Beside the pig barn,
the boy's hand glides along
the top edge of fence till her stops
stiff, a foot away from a pigeon
with no tail feathers. The bird
quivers. Its plucky legs cling
to the whitewashed wood.
Later, when the stars crack open
the night, the boy crawls
from his second-story window
hauling worms from his bait box
to the spot on the fence
where nothing remains. It's too dark
to see anything dead on the ground.
first published in SALT HILL
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 lightening, 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.
Awarded a Special Mention in the 2011 PUSHCART PRIZE ANTHOLOGY
first published in BLUE EARTH REVIEW
Father, Child, Water
I lift your body to the boat
before you drown or choke or slip too far
beneath. I didn't think—--just jumped, just did
what I did like the physics
that flung you in. My hands clutch under
year-old arms, between your life
jacket and your bobbing frame, pushing you,
like a fountain cherub, up and out.
I'’m fooled by the warmth pulsing from
the gash on my thigh, sliced wide and clean
by an errant screw on the stern.
No pain. My legs kick out blood below.
My arms strain
against our deaths to hold you up
as I lift you, crying, reaching, to the boat.
first published in NEW LETTERS
Bill Bitner’'s Bundle of Something Identical
Once a month or so, I go to the Econo Lodge
and drop off a bundle, usually a wrapped up phone book
or something else heavy, before the sun gets up.
To the nametag on the lady, I say, My brother
will come around to pick this up. It'’s something important.
He looks a lot like me, but his voice is higher.
Mother, more than once, told me I got
my brother’'s name. Bill Bitner the First, my older
twin, caught something blue and died 10 minutes old.
When the sun sticks through the slits on the west window
and bounces off the TV screen, I get up
from my plaid chair and pull my fishing hat down on my eyes.
I fix a limp or stutter step onto my legs when I see
the same lady at the counter. I’'m here to pick something up
from my brother. My voice usually cracks on brother.
Mother said, Probably would’'ve been a foot taller,
able to digest peanuts, and eczema free. I wonder if Bill
would have been afraid of shadows that might catch fire.
The lady gives me the package like she’'s found a teddy bear
and I’'m its child. It’'s a phone book. I take it, hold it close to my heart
murmur, and forget to ask what I really want to know—
When I dropped this off, what was my name?
first published in CAVE WALL
Evander Holyfield's Left Ear
Remembers June 28, 1997
Poem of 4 Explanations
to Poems at Poetry Readings
On Swearing
At 78, Maurita Discovers the Waterslide
Gary Dop --poet, scriptwriter, consultant, playwright, professor, and father--lives in Minneapolis with his wife and three daughters. An associate professor of English at North Central University, Gary teaches literature and creative writing.
After growing up in Germany and the Midwest, Gary received his M.F.A. from the University of Nebraska, where he was awarded the M.F.A. Creative Writing Award as the program's top student. His mentors included Ted Kooser, Richard Robbins, Teri Youmans Grimm, and William Trowbridge.
Gary's poems have appeared or are forthcoming in a number of journals, including Prairie Schooner, New Letters, North American Review, Poetry Northwest, Poet Lore, The New York Quarterly, Passages North, Rattle, Agni, Green Mountains Review, Hotel Amerika, Cave Wall and the Poetry Foundation's syndicated newspaper column, American Life in Poetry .
Gary received a 2011 Pushcart Special Mention for his poem "To the Ice Cream Man."
Advocating for the arts is an important part of Gary's life. He currently serves as the writer-in-residence at the Banfill-Locke Center for the Arts , and he's a Board Member for the Twin Cities best literary organization, Rain Taxi , which publishes the Rain Taxi Review of Books and sponsors the Twin Cities Book Festival.
As a poet who values performance, Gary has entertained audiences at university and community events throughout the Midwest. In 2009, he was one of five poets to qualify as a member of the national champion performance poetry team out of St. Paul.
In other genres, Gary's essays have been heard on public radio's All Things Considered , and he's written and sold scripts for video projects (commercials, short films, etc.), and his plays have been produced in small venues around the country, but thus far Broadway has been smugly disinterested.
From time to time, Gary plays around with acting and stand-up comedy. He recently appeared in a short film, a few commercials, and he was named Top Comic in an evening competition at Acme Comedy Club in Minneapolis.
Contact:
Gary Dop is available for poetry readings, workshops, lectures, emceeing, comedy, scriptwriting, acting, creative consulting, and cake decorating.*
Email: garydop_gmail.com
Recent workshops, consulting gigs, readings, and presentations:
Silverwood "Cell Stops" Writing Project
HighJump Software
University of South Dakota Poetry Festival
Rain Taxi Review of Books
Walker Art Center
AWP Conference
Banfil-Locke Center for the Arts
Minnesota West Community College
National Youth Fine Arts Festival
University of Nebraska
Nebraska Summer Honors Program
Sigma Tau Delta English Honorary Society
Twin Cities Funniest Person Contest
* Gary is not a good cake decorator. He knows. He's trying harder, and he apologizes, once again, to Mr and Mrs. Bonjanski and their wedding party.
Recent Activity:
Poetry Reading and Creative Nonfiction Reading -- John R. Milton Writers Confernce, USD.
Silverwood Park "Art on Foot" Project -- Reading and Cell Stops Project.
Featured Poet: Art in the Park, Banfill-Locke Center for the Arts.
"How to Pretend You've Read Moby Dick" and "Amish Man in the Andy Warhol Museum"
- Purdue University's Sycamore Review.
Creative Writing Instructor: Nebraska Summer Honors Program.
"To the Ice Cream Man" - Special Mention in the 2011 Pushcart Prize Anthology .
Invited Reading: "Nightshift" Walker Art Center - Minneapolis, MN.
Featured Poet: The Entertainment Machine (live radio show) - Minneapolis, MN.
Two Social Justice Writing Workshops:
International Sigma Tau Delta Conference - Pittsburgh, PA.
2011 Writer in Residence : Banfil-Locke Center for the Arts - Fridley, MN.
"Tornado of '62, Indianola, Iowa" - Salt Hill , Syracuse University.
Poetry Reading and Poetry and Performance Workshop:
University of South Dakota - Vermillion, SD.
Featured Poet: Northwestern College - St. Paul, MN.
Promotional Commercial Writer and Actor : HighJump Sofware Promotional Commercial.
"The Long Madness" - New York Quarterly.
Two Workshops and Judging: High School National Fine Arts Festival - Detroit , MI.
Pedagogy Consultant: Rain Taxi Review of Books - Minneapolis, MN.
"Poverty Identification Simulation" - Green Mountains Review.
MFA Alumni Reading: University of Nebraska - Nebraska City, NE.
"The Father Identifies the Body" "The Super Shows the Apartment of the Murdered Girl"
Hotel Amerika , Columbia College of Chicago.
"BIll Bitner Delivers Pizza" - Center: A Journal of the Literary Arts - University of Missouri.
"Looking On" - Poet Lore (the oldest continuously published poetry magazine).
"You Can Call Me Al" - The Coachella Review, U of California, Riverside.
Featured Reading and Workshop:
Minnesota West Comm. and Tech. College - Marshall, MN
Coming Soon...
This website and its contents belong to Gary Dop; unauthroized use of anything on this site is prohibited.
