Book excerpt: The Loss of the Schooner Kestrel & Other Poems is a contemporary book of sea poetry based on recreational boating and commercial fishing. The boats in Dey’s poems are many and varied, and he writes about them in both literal and figurative ways. He regards yachts not as images of conspicuous consumption but as vehicles of trial and transport, and in this he is revolutionary. He sees them in the continuum of ships. The title poem is a narrative about the predicament of a modern sailor in a traditional battle against an ageless sea.