In the Tote

The past few postings here on PickFish Tales, I've featured fellow Fisher Poets.  Well, I've enjoyed riding that wave so much and decided to ride it a little longer.  This week's blog high liner is Pat Dixon.

Pat Dixon photo by Veronica Kessler

Fisher Poet and fellow blogger Pat Dixon gillnetted Cook Inlet up in Alaska from 1977 to 1997.  Originally from Indiana,  he began dabbling in photography in high school and writing  shortly there after.  He has been published in the Oberon Poetry magazine, The Smithsonian, Pacific Fishing, to name a few.  A retired educator, Pat now works a free lance writer and photographer in Olympia, Washington with is spitfire wife, Veronica.  Also, he is on the organizing committee of the Annual Fisher Poets Gathering in Astoria, Oregon, has a blog Gillnet Dreams, a website Pat Dixon, and an anthology of Fisher Poets called In the Tote.  Here is a list of places to find Pat's work:

Gillnet Dreams:   http://dixonphoto.blogspot.com/
Pat Dixon photo: http://www.patrickdixon.net/patrickdixon.net/Welcome.html
Astoria's Fisher Poets Gathering: http://www.fisherpoets.org/
In the Tote: In the Tote

In the Tote is a culmination of musings, writings, songs, tall tales and of course, stories of the one that got away from folks in the commercial fishing industry.  From fresh greenhorns to salty skippers, Pat has schooled up stories from across the country of sea faring men and women who make the annual run to Astoria's Fisher Poets Gathering (FPG), this year in its 16th year.  On the site, which Pat just recreated, you'll find audio files, video, photos and writings of 36 Fisher Poets, myself included, who have one time or another, performed on the stages at the FPG.  As Pat states on the welcome page of In the Tote, " The material you read and listen to here represents a small fillet of what has been caught at the Fisher Poets Gathering.....since it began in 1998."

photo by Pat Dixon

 

 

 

 

WORD OF WARNING: listening to sea stories can be highly addictive and has been linked to longings for the ocean, the feel of wind in your hair and salt spray on your face.  Eating wild salmon has been known to help.  However,  if gone unchecked, it can result in the insatiable desire to fish commercially, which, as of the date of this writing, there is no known cure.  If you find this happening to you, please join your fellow salty sufferers at the 2014 Fisher Poets Gathering in Astoria, Oregon from February  21-23.  I'm out.

16th Annual Fisher Poets Gathering, Astoria Oregon

I made it!  We made it! We all made it.  The snow in Denver subsided just long enough for me to catch my flight to Portland, Oregon for my third year at Fisher Poets.  At the Portland airport, I met up with fellow Fisher Poets Ron McDaniel and Steve Schoonmaker.  I asked Steve if he was ready for this opener, this weekend of song, celebration, and drink sometimes feels like a fishing opener.  As soon as we cast our first story, its three days of no sleep, just go, go, go.

This year is our second year making the now annual pilgramage  from Portland to Astoria together.  It started with Steve and I talking about carpooling last year.   Then I saw an add on Facebook that the Cowboy needed a lift.  Ron, Fisher Poet's token Cowboy, was going to hitchhike the hour and half journey, but his wife was afraid that someone would pick him up just to steal his leather boots and toss him aside.  With that, our little tradition of splitting the fuel and catching up along the way was born.

 

Ron and Jen's work boots.

Astoria's local paper, The Astorian, generously  printed out this years schedule in the Thursday's edition of coast Weekend. Also HIPFISHmonthy, Astoria's local alternative paper featured FPs on their cover.

HIPFISHmonthy's cover

Camaraderie out the Wazoo

I love that, "Camaraderie out the Wazoo!" Camaraderie is defined as "a spirit of friendly good fellowship". That really sums up the heart of this event and why I love it so much.  For me, its not getting up on stage and performing my poems, that isn't fun, that's terrifying.  But I do it to belong this specific group of fishermen, fishermen who write.   They seem understand my poems because they have all, at one time or another, lived them too.  And I, theirs.  You can see it on their faces, from the grimace at the mention of jellyfish in the eye, to the nod of recognition of bring in a deckload.  We have all had our own triumphs and tregedies on the sea, some bigger than others.  And to be with a group of folks like that all weekend is like coming home.

 Pat Dixon goofing off with Ron's hat last night at the welcome dinner.