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Twenty years ago I wrote a poem. When I delivered the poem in front of my friends on stage at a party it spontaniously became a song. We used to play it at country bars and the guys in the back playing pool always went nuts at the end of the third verse about the fish going free. I think it expresses my feelings about fishing:

Some men spend their money to buy a new car,
My freind payed a fortune just to buy a guitar.
What I want from life, is enough spare time,
To search the clean waters for a fish on the line.

Big fish on the line, big fish on the line.
I'm gonna catch him and make that fish mine.
A junky's got a needle and a winos got wine,
But I'd sell my soul for a fish on the line.

I tell you folks there's nothing so fair
than to see that big Steelhead take a leap in the air
When it makes that first run I get chills down my spine.
And buddy you know there's a fish on that line.

Chorus

Some men get their kicks from a slide down the snow.
Some men want a women, like Marylyn Monroe.
But I want a salmon, coming home from the Sea.
If I'm hungry I'll eat him, if I'm not, he goes free.

Chorus

Well it's been several years since I wrote this here ditty,
And the future of fishing ain't quite so pretty.
So protect where they're spawning, or some jerk will pave it.
You're fishermen damn it, it's your job to save it.

Big fish on the line, big fish on the line.
I'm gonna catch him and make that fish mine.
Every Junky's got his Monkey, and I know I've got mine.
I'd sell my soul for a fish on the line.

Eric Meyer
6837 NE Alameda
Portland OR. 97213
503 249-1864

posted 4 years, 7 months ago
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