On the line of scrimmage,
If your daughter’s report card
Is not the brightest image,
If your children are not turning out
As healthy as you’d wished,
Perhaps on your dinner table
You might be missing fish.
Max Broderick
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About The Fisher Poets Gatherings
The fishing culture in the Pacific Northwest is one of a salty toughness that is not known for sharing its unique experiences. This is a tight-knit group that generally sticks to their boats and is not usually known for their artistic contributions.
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Gathering and sharing art "enables us to understand ourselves as observers and participants, as part of the process of creating communicative art and making meaning from it." - Sims and Stephens
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They're clingin' to the cross trees
Plastered to the mast
Splattered on the flyin' bridge
Bakin' on the stack....
We're buckin' back to Naknek
Festooned with herring scales....
If the Japanese eat herring roe
And the French escargot snails
How come there ain't a gourmet market
For all them herring scales?
Wesley "Geno" Leech
Who are the Fisher Poets
The Fisher Poets are a folk group that aims to share a piece of their lives and culture to a "far-flung but tightknit community." The artists come from far off or near by to tell tales of their industry and share stories amongst their friends and fans “so it's more of a reunion than a pretentious literary event." - Boorstin
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The events that make up most of the Fisher Poet Gatherings focus on the poetry of the lives affected by the dangers of the seas and an industry known for its toughness. But poetry is not the only form of expression. The Fisher Poets also share their culture through music and artwork. Almost any form of artistic expression is welcome, so long as it shares the experience of being a commercial fisherman.
We ride the ebb and swell of the job market,
negotiating interviews like we used to quarter
the boat through heavy weather.
we still run hard, looking for jumpers,
We still search for Fat City
Pat Dixon
Why do they meet?
A society is identified by its traditions, by a core of teachings handed down from the past. The very idea identity of a society rests on this continuity with the past. - Handler and Linnekin
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The Fisher Poets Gathering allows for the commercial fishing industry and its culture to live on through performances of the artists. The audience experiences this culture and allows for it to grow and spread throughout the community. This allows for the traditions of the Fosher Poets and their future to persevere and survive.
It seemed a good idea at the time
to sign upon the dotted line.
Now I serve the Guard
and patrol the Native Coast.
I pledge my life in exchange for yours
and I hold myself to task.
Five years it's been and some change,
time served before the mast.
The Graveyard of the Pacific
denied a dozen souls,
rescued by mine own hand.
But of all the nameless,
faceless ghosts
who shake me to wake at night,
the ones you should remember most
are the ones who did not think
that a life jacket
was a good idea.