Big Fish, by Jane Appell

A Good Pool, Saguenay River, by Winslow Homer (USA) 1895

Big Fish
 
The thrill of the catch
men in brotherhood
fighting briny surf
preoccupied with an idea
of the biggest fish. 
They see it in the sky, 
see it in their dreaming 
tell of it in stories,
the fish they want to seize,
big fish they want to be. 
 
Men with sinewy arms
fight the elements
to reach perfect fishing hole. 
My father was of those men
when he wasn’t 
an insurance agent
or a husband or a father,
on yearly sojourn 
to backwoods Maine
with his male pride. 
 
A picture of my dad
as a young man
standing tall 
with long fishing rod
and giant trout 
hangs on my wall 
in memoriam.

Jane Appell

Jane Appell, Ph.D., is a semi-retired psychologist in private practice. For much of her career, she worked with adults, children, couples, and families involved in high-conflict divorce. She published a book for therapists dealing with high conflict divorced families (Divorce Doesn't Have to Be That Way, Impact, 2006.) In her private life, Jane is spiritual in her outlook and loves to travel. She has recently devoted more time to writing, especially poetry, and is working on a novel about two high conflict divorced families in which children have become estranged from a parent.  Jane particularly enjoys writing poems about artwork and places she has visited. Except for an occasional blog or local newsletter, her poetry is unpublished until now.