The inaugural Fisher Poets Gathering happened in Astoria, OR in 1998 with a few dozen people from the local area crammed into a little meeting hall, reading their scribbles to each other over coffee and cake.  Last weekend, the 11th Annual Fisher Poets Gathering kicked off on Friday evening with a fancy reception at the Events Center.  Over the next day and a half, fishermen and artists from the Great Northwest, California, Alaska, and as far away as Florida, and Cape Cod, MA participated in workshops, presentations, gallery showings, storytelling, boat tours, and open mic's at a half-dozen venues all over downtown.  The Maritime Museum, Hanthorn Cannery, and local fishermen opened their doors for people to get a little history lesson as well as their hands dirty.  A few of the more accomplished artists conducted workshops to assist those aspiring writers and musicians.  Poetry readings, funny anecdotes, and short songs carried the evening programs at the Columbian Theater and the Wet Dog Cafe, and the R-rated material lit-up latenight at the VooDoo Lounge.  It was standing room only anywhere you went and impossible to find a person who wasn't impressed with the Gathering.  Of course, some of the stories and some of the performers were more practiced and polished than others, but everyone spoke from the heart, and the camaraderie and sense of community were really the best things the weekend inspired.  There aren't any prizes, awards, book deals, or television shows waiting at the end of the Gathering, just the satisfaction of sharing something meaningful.  One fisherman from Alaska related how his fishing buddies depend on his stories and poems for a sense of comfort.  When fishing is slow, the weather is bad, and they've been out by themselves for so long they're starting to lose it, they get on the radio and ask him for a bit of consolation/entertainment.  Fishing is demanding, rough, dangerous, hardcore...whatever.  But its essence is buried in the depths of the subtle and powerful, romantic rhythms of nature.  Fisher Poets strive to capture the humanness of this enterprise, to shed layers of toughness, stubbornness, loneliness, and greed, and reveal the soul.  And anyone can relate to that.