Some of you have asked how Fish­er Poets went last week­end. I haven’t been able to write about it yet — have bare­ly been able to think about it, with­out a giant, goofy grin, swelling heart, nos­tal­gic sigh. The after­glow’s still burn­ing pret­ty bright­ly. For­tu­nate­ly, the Dai­ly Asto­ri­an put togeth­er a good arti­cle that sums it up nice­ly. They made a great video, too, which includes clips of per­for­mances by Cary Jones, Jason Doan, Moe Bow­stern, Erin Fris­tad, Bil­lie Delaney, Lloyd Mont­gomery, Jon Brod­er­ick & Jay Speak­man, Ray Troll & the Rat­fish Wran­glers, and me. It’s worth the four-minute watch.

Fish­ers Hook the Crowd with Tal­ent Dur­ing Fish­er­Po­ets Gathering

Also, thanks to the Dai­ly Asto­ri­an for anoth­er good arti­cle, “Peb­ble Mine Oppo­nents Gath­er Dur­ing Fish­er Poets Event.”  Thanks to the many biol­o­gists, pro­fes­sors, fish­eries experts, and per­form­ers who spoke up for Bris­tol Bay.

Long­time Hooked read­ers may remem­ber the series of FPG posts I sub­ject­ed you to last March, when I could­n’t stop writ­ing about it for weeks after. It’s a pret­ty safe bet that there’ll be a few more posts like that this year, too. I would­n’t have imag­ined that our sec­ond year attend­ing could top the first, but it did — thanks to the over­whelm­ing spir­it of gen­eros­i­ty, inclu­sion, and tal­ent that we found every­where we went. Par­tic­i­pat­ing has been an hon­or, and learn­ing from my fel­low per­form­ers — elders and green­horns alike — has been a priv­i­lege. There are an awful lot of words I’d like to use to relive this expe­ri­ence, but real­ly, it all comes down to just a few. Awe. Grat­i­tude. Love.

Pho­to by Pat Dixon.

(The last week­end of Feb­ru­ary, sweet­ies. There’s no shame in mark­ing your cal­en­dar now… I have.)