Teenagers and the Sea: Fisher Poet Tales (with Video!)

Posted by Tele on December 7, 2012 in Commercial Fishing, Culture, Reading & Writing | 4 comments

National Fish­er­man did a nice write-up on last week’s Fisher Poets “On the Road” per­for­mance at Fish Expo, where Dano Quinn, Patrick Dixon, Abi­gail Culkin and I each had 20 min­utes to per­form. For the sec­ond post in a row: thanks, NF!

I swear Pat and I didn’t plan this, but with back-to-back read­ings, you couldn’t miss our shared theme: adolescence. Rough for any parent/spawn rela­tion­ship, this is a par­tic­u­larly rocky period for those trapped together aboard a small fish­ing boat. Forced not only to co-exist, but to coöper­ate – the family’s liveli­hood depends on it. So does phys­i­cal safety. As their par­ents’ crew, boat kids develop a fero­cious work ethic, endurance, and respon­si­bil­ity. Trans­fer­able skills, whether they con­tinue fish­ing or not. And it seems to be about a fifty-fifty split: of the boat kids I grew up with, maybe half are like Joel and me – salt-stained lif­ers who aren’t fully them­selves away from the sea. The other half couldn’t jump ship fast enough.

Photo thanks to F/V Kath­leen Jo

The story Pat read, “The Con­nec­tion,” is one of my favorites. It’s how I met Pat, and first learned about Fisher Poets, at Fish Expo four or five years ago. The audi­ence packed the room – it was right next the beer gar­den – and I wedged into the back. When this tall gill­net­ter took the stage, I didn’t know what to expect – but it surely wasn’t this tear-jerking story of a reluc­tant killer, reflect­ing on what it meant to build one’s life by tak­ing life. I’d never heard another fish­er­man so per­fectly express my own inner con­flict. Watch “The Con­nec­tion” here.

And the story I read? Years ago, one of our fleet elders said some­thing that stuck with me. He said, “Every­body has a rock up here with their name on it. If you fish long enough, you’ll find it.” As it hap­pened, six years was all it took for this sleepy mariner. A story of drama, dan­ger, romance, and tri­umph, watch “The Rock With My Name ” here.

This is a great warm-up, friends… Mark your cal­en­dars: the 16^th annual Fisher Poets Gath­er­ing is less than three months away! This year’s dates are Feb­ru­ary 22 – 24, hosted in Asto­ria, Ore­gon. Check out their brand-new web­site – which includes a sneak peek at the per­form­ers sign­ing up! (Between the vet­eran and first-time names, it’s already a great line-up, with many more yet to come.) I’d love to see you there.

Thanks again to National Fish­er­man for sup­port­ing this Fisher Poets “On the Road” per­for­mance, and to Pat Dixon for mak­ing it hap­pen. Also, thanks to the delight­ful Betsy Delph, whose video may not have turned out as well, but her efforts were much appreciated.