TO ORDER AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF THE POETRY BOOK 'MENDING HOLES'
email [email protected] with your order, address, phone number and how many copies you want.
I will email you back with options for payment (Venmo, PayPal or check).
$18.99 each plus shipping
I will email you back with options for payment (Venmo, PayPal or check).
$18.99 each plus shipping
Patrick Dixon's first full-length book of poetry, 'Mending Holes' (MoonPath Press.), is a collection of poems inspred by his 20 years working as a commercial salmon fisherman on Cook Inlet, Alaska. From his two years spent as a deckhand to his inexperience as a skipper fishing a leaky wood boat to finally learning how to best catch the sockeye salmon he chased as they made their way up the inlet, these poems serve as a container for larger issues such as coming of age, finding knowledge, the frustration of inexperience, the timeless beauty and danger of the sea, and the trials of growing old and leaving what you loved.
Praise for 'Mending Holes':
Patrick Dixon conjures his past life as an Alaskan fisherman with his considerable poetic and storytelling gifts and a capacious memory for the perfect detail. That world's thrills, exhaustion, danger, jonesing, friendships, boats, whiff of diesel layered over fish, and orange pink sunsets all feel close enough to touch. So does the push and pull of yearning, fear, and wonder that remain. This is a beautiful account of an old life lived completely in the crystalline present, and the cost and reward of giving it up in time.
Kathleen Flenniken, former Washington state Poet Laureate and author
of Plume and Post Romantic
______________________________
Patrick Dixon, with decades of commercial salmon fishing behind him, has convincingly captured the reality of his time and place—the smells of fish, the light at the end of a day, wooden boats moldering on the beach, nets full of fish and empty nets holding the next year’s hopes, the greenhorn he was, the old man of memories. He asks, late in this alternately heart-stopping and heart-warming collection, “How did I get to be so lucky?” We are all lucky that Patrick has given us such an intimate, honest, literate look into his examined life.
Nancy Lord, author of Fishcamp and Beluga Days
_______________________________
Praise for 'Mending Holes':
Patrick Dixon conjures his past life as an Alaskan fisherman with his considerable poetic and storytelling gifts and a capacious memory for the perfect detail. That world's thrills, exhaustion, danger, jonesing, friendships, boats, whiff of diesel layered over fish, and orange pink sunsets all feel close enough to touch. So does the push and pull of yearning, fear, and wonder that remain. This is a beautiful account of an old life lived completely in the crystalline present, and the cost and reward of giving it up in time.
Kathleen Flenniken, former Washington state Poet Laureate and author
of Plume and Post Romantic
______________________________
Patrick Dixon, with decades of commercial salmon fishing behind him, has convincingly captured the reality of his time and place—the smells of fish, the light at the end of a day, wooden boats moldering on the beach, nets full of fish and empty nets holding the next year’s hopes, the greenhorn he was, the old man of memories. He asks, late in this alternately heart-stopping and heart-warming collection, “How did I get to be so lucky?” We are all lucky that Patrick has given us such an intimate, honest, literate look into his examined life.
Nancy Lord, author of Fishcamp and Beluga Days
_______________________________
Excerpt:
No need to dream. Tonight I dance at the bar
where fishermen go between openings, and we
close the place down. I shoot pool like a sharp knife,
fire potato-guns at beer cans out the back door,
and snort lines drawn out on a Devil’s Club leaf.
My crew and I stink of salmon gurry and slime,
so we shower in our clothes and take a soggy cab
back to the boat.
§
When I finally come home, you aren’t there.
The house is dark, your car isn’t in the drive,
and to save my life, I have to figure out why.
where fishermen go between openings, and we
close the place down. I shoot pool like a sharp knife,
fire potato-guns at beer cans out the back door,
and snort lines drawn out on a Devil’s Club leaf.
My crew and I stink of salmon gurry and slime,
so we shower in our clothes and take a soggy cab
back to the boat.
§
When I finally come home, you aren’t there.
The house is dark, your car isn’t in the drive,
and to save my life, I have to figure out why.
TO ORDER AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF THE MEMOIR 'WAITING TO DELIVER'
email [email protected] with your order, address, phone number and how many copies you want.
I will email you back with options for payment (Venmo, PayPal or check).
$17.99. each plus shipping
Using poetry, prose and photography, Waiting to Deliver tells the story of a young man’s journey into the world of commercial fishing for salmon on the waters of Cook Inlet, Alaska. Starting as a 27-year old greenhorn schoolteacher from Indiana, Patrick Dixon works as a deckhand for two seasons before buying his own boat and permit. Through a series of missteps inspired by ignorance, inexperience and bad luck, he stumbles through twenty years of learning how to survive the dangers inherent in working on the water, nursing a perpetual sinking boat, staying afloat financially and becoming a member of a fishing community
Dixon encounters a diverse group of cannery workers and seasoned fishermen who help him develop into an accomplished skipper. He is mentored by two brothers who realize how much he doesn’t know, take him on as a project, and teach him to deal with the endless list of unexpected events and circumstances that fishing throws at him. As his knowledge, expertise and confidence grow, Dixon continues to encounter personal and professional challenges that test his ability, judgement, and patience as a skipper, friend, husband and father.
Dixon encounters a diverse group of cannery workers and seasoned fishermen who help him develop into an accomplished skipper. He is mentored by two brothers who realize how much he doesn’t know, take him on as a project, and teach him to deal with the endless list of unexpected events and circumstances that fishing throws at him. As his knowledge, expertise and confidence grow, Dixon continues to encounter personal and professional challenges that test his ability, judgement, and patience as a skipper, friend, husband and father.
