---
title: "Poems and paintings in the service of albatross conservation: a collaboration between Hannah Fries and Sara Parrilli"
---

# Poems and paintings in the service of albatross conservation: a collaboration between Hannah Fries and Sara Parrilli

From time to time, *ACAP Latest News* has featured the role of albatrosses and petrels in literature and in the visual and aural arts.  Visual art works covered have included [public statues](https://www.acap.aq/en/24-news-archive-section/2011-news-archive/821-standing-tall-albatross-statues-and-memorials-around-the-world?highlight=WyJzdGF0dWUiXQ==) around the world, as well as oil and water-colour paintings (often appearing on [postage stamps](https://www.acap.aq/en/24-news-archive-section/2011-news-archive/907-albatrosses-and-petrels-are-depicted-on-postage-stamps-from-around-the-world?highlight=WyJwb3N0YWdlIiwic3RhbXBzIiwicG9zdGFnZSBzdGFtcHMiXQ==)).  Musical arts have been covered with Fleetwood Mac’s haunting [guitar instrumental *Albatross*](https://www.acap.aq/en/57-news-archive-section/2012-news-archive/66-seabirds-featured-in-music-fleetwood-mac-and-albatross?highlight=WyJjb2xlcmlkZ2UiLCJjb2xlcmlkZ2UncyJd).  Albatrosses, more than petrels, have appeared in some well-known poems by such as [Samuel Taylor Coleridge](https://www.acap.aq/en/news/latest-news/1898-the-rime-of-the-ancient-mariner-and-the-conservation-of-albatrosses-down-the-ages?highlight=WyJjb2xlcmlkZ2UiLCJjb2xlcmlkZ2UncyJd), [Pablo Neruda](https://www.acap.aq/en/24-news-archive-section/2011-news-archive/902-pablo-neruda-and-eduardo-langagne-two-south-american-poets-who-have-written-movingly-of-albatrosses?highlight=WyJuZXJ1ZGEiLCJuZXJ1ZGEncyJd) and [Charles Baudelaire](https://www.acap.aq/en/24-news-archive-section/2011-news-archive/915-charles-baudelaire-and-lalbatros-a-compassionate-french-poem-in-the-service-of-conservation?highlight=WyJiYXVkZWxhaXJlIiwiYmF1ZGVsYWlyZSdzIl0=).  Albatross poems featured in *ALN* have appeared in several languages: English, French and Spanish – coincidentally ACAP’s three official languages – as well as in [Hawaiian](https://www.acap.aq/en/24-news-archive-section/2011-news-archive/805-the-wise-ml-soars-in-the-calm-more-poetry-in-the-service-of-albatross-and-petrel-conservation?highlight=WyJiYXVkZWxhaXJlIiwiYmF1ZGVsYWlyZSdzIl0=).

 *ALN*’s thinking is that artistic endeavours of these types can often strike a chord with the general public for a conservation cause more easily than can dry scientific writing - appealing to the heart as well as to the head.

 Pleasing then to be able to get in touch with two USA-based artists, poet [Hannah Fries](http://www.hannahfries.com/) and painter [Sara Parrilli](https://saraparrilli.com), who have collaborated on a suite of illustrated poems that address the plight of albatrosses in the North Pacific.  They write on-line:

 “This collaboration began with a film clip: a trailer for the forthcoming film [Albatross](https://www.albatrossthefilm.com/) (now available to the public in its finished form), written and directed by artist Chris Jordan.  It is one of those works of art that combines so much grief with so much beauty that looking away from it feels impossible.  In this case, the story is about a remote island in the Pacific, the beautiful Laysan albatross, and the horrifying effects of the plastic that makes its way to the ocean and, carried by currents, gathers in a mind-bogglingly vast garbage patch.”

 Here is just one of the collaborations from their Albatross project:

 **Albatross at the Great Pacific Garbage Patch**- by Hannah Fries

 Because hunger  
 Because life  
 Because squid and bottle caps and bags  
 Because pervasive  
 Because what is not needed passes through  
 Because salt our companion  
 Because solitude  
 Because the egg cracks open the chick cries out a thousand miles away  
 Because our ancestors  
 Because the wind that brings us  
 Because glide  
 Because dive  
 Because when has anything not been food to someone  
 Because now  
 Because here  
 Because the sea is our body is the world inside us  
 Because how will we recognize the end

 ![](https://acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Posters_Books/albatross-at-the-garbage-patch.jpg)

 Albatross at the Great Pacific Garbage Patch by Sara Parrilli

 See more works from their project [here](https://www.terrain.org/2018/poetry/albatross/?fbclid=IwAR35YqCqfXHoplkNUUy0l_DI9QZa87Ws0F6O-oBQKkPvEDm6YfegLn-AgxY).  Future postings will feature more of Hannah’s and Sara’s collaboration.

 With thanks to Hannah Fries and Sara Parrilli.

 *John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 24 January 2019*