D. Nurkse

Biography

D. Nurkse is the author of eight books of poetry, most recently The Fall (Knopf, 2002) and Burnt Island (Knopf, 2005). He has received the Whiting Award, two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, two grants from the New York State Foundation for the Arts, and other awards. He has also written widely on human rights.

See Work

POETRY / Summer 2018

Lord of Childhood

By D. Nurkse

We are all enchanted. But we have to pay for it.

You know that part of town where the miners once lived? Sooty frame houses, porches whose floorboards spring up? Rusty screen doors that close with a thrum, then a series of clicks, then a...

POETRY / Summer 2018

Victory

By D. Nurkse

The election is over, but we trudge back to the phone bank with our clipboards and scripts. We can still dial the swing states. North Carolina, Florida, Nevada: Can we count on you? Have a blesséd evening!

As in the last days, no one will...

POETRY / Spring 2007

Anthropocene

By D. Nurkse

She writes: the air here changes
like a face in a mirror.
In the flight of moths at dusk
we see unknown primary colors.

POETRY / Summer 2006

Leaving Hawk Mountain

By D. Nurkse

I longed to teach the child
the pinheaded oscillating glide
of the turkey buzzard,
nimble serene accipiter,

Autumn 1997

Revolution in the Past

By D. Nurkse
Autumn 1997

Letter to Ko

By D. Nurkse
Winter 1999

North of Bethel

By D. Nurkse
Autumn 2001

It

By D. Nurkse
POETRY / Autumn 2001

The Wilson Avenue Kings

By D. Nurkse