On Swearing by Gary Dop : American Life in Poetry

The Poetry Foundation

Library of Congress

University of Nebraska
at Lincoln

American Life in Poetry: Column 189

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

In celebration of Veteran’s Day, here is a telling poem by Gary Dop, a Minnesota poet. The veterans of World War II, now old, are dying by the thousands. Here’s one still with us, standing at Normandy, remembering.

On Swearing

In Normandy, at Point Du Hoc,

where some Rangers died,

Dad pointed to an old man

20 feet closer to the edge than us,

asking if I could see

the medal the man held

like a rosary.

As we approached the cliff

the man’s swearing, each bulleted

syllable, sifted back

toward us in the ocean wind.

I turned away,

but my shoulder was held still

by my father’s hand,

and I looked up at him

as he looked at the man.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright © 2007 by Gary Dop. Reprinted from “Whistling Shade,” Summer, 2007, by permission of Gary Dop. Introduction copyright © 2012 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

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