Header photo by Sven Haakanson
On-site Poetry Contest
This year's theme was multi-layered. Each contestant was required to keep their poem under 30 seconds in length, use the word "Twenty" (this was our 20th year), include a boat name and the phrase "We're all in the same boat."
Photo by Sven Haakanson
Our winner this year was Isabella Haakanson from Seattle. She is eleven years old!
Here is her winning poem:
Here is her winning poem:
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Twenty pink boats
named George gliding through the dark blue indigo water. My family and I were all in the same boat, petting pigs named George. Why did George the pig cross the road? Because he was stapled to a chicken! |
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Runners-Up
Isabella reads her winning poem while runners-up (L to R) Doug Rhodes, Will Hornyak, Ingrid Rees and Nancy Cook look on.
We had four gracious and talented Runners-Up this year, Doug Rhodes, Will Hornyak, Ingrid Rees and Nancy Cook. Here are their poems.
Hopefully
Doug Rhodes
Hopefully I’ll be fishing the Nakwasina
through the next set of Permutations
climate change, acidification
or more government regulations.
Hopefully you’ll be fishing your boat
Whether you gillnet seine or trawl
But remember that mines and dams and pollution
Have an impact on us all.
All gear groups need to get along
And work for a common future that’s better
There’s a lot of strikes against us
But we’re all in the same boat together.
So hopefully we’ll see each other again
With a pocket full of poems aplenty
I love the fisherpoets gathering
So here’s to another twenty!
The Common Fate
Will Hornyak
WillHornyak.net
‘Twas the year 20 and 17
when our boat “The Common Fate”
was blown upon a rocky shoal
by winds of ignorance, greed and hate.
“Lighten her up!” the captain roared
to the mates below.
“Jettison every prejudice
of gender, race, creed and color,
the fetid bilge
of arrogance and entitlement must go.
Only then we can survive these seas, this weather.”
Well mates, I think this is our fate,
we’re in the same boat together.
Flotsam and Jetsam
Ingrid Rees
We’re an all-girl crew
of twenty somethings
Except Gina, she’s 40--
Used to moonlight at the
Bunny Ranch in Elko.
Dan, our skipper, is 50
Pays alimony to three wives--
Could be why he named
His boat the Dizzy Bitch
Heidi, the greenhorn cook from Texas,
Spends most of her time
Barfing in a bucket.
Josey sports a green snake tattoo
That twists from ankle to ear.
And me? I’m running from love
In all the wrong places.
“We’re all in the same boat” --
Flotsam & Jetsam.
Cold Stream
Nancy Cook
for Dave Densmore
When I met him first
Sitting on the dock of a bay
Which is actually an estuary
Tidally influenced, seasonally fluctuating
Army corps dredged snow and ice melt
altered flow of agrochemicals, nucleotides,
and so much soul
Emptying a drainage basin
larger than the nation of Japan plus Puerto Rico
I thought to myself What's twenty years?
Does age really matter?
We're all in the same boat
And it's a damn Cold Stream.
2017 Photos
2017 readers and performers
