Waiting for the Albatross: Found Poems from a Deck Hand’s Diary, 1936

Waiting for the Albatross is Sandy Shreve’s fifth collection of poetry. It features found poems composed using fragments from a diary her father, Jack Shreve, wrote in 1936 when, at age 21, he embarked overseas as a deck hand on a freighter. The five-month trip took him from Halifax, through the Panama Canal and across the Pacific to New Zealand and Australia; then back again, docking at Montreal. Shreve’s poems are illustrated with photos from the journey, taking the reader into the life of a young man facing the world of the Great Depression.