Burnt Island

Fiction & Literature, Poetry, American
Cover of the book Burnt Island by D. Nurkse, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: D. Nurkse ISBN: 9780307516237
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group Publication: April 2, 2009
Imprint: Knopf Language: English
Author: D. Nurkse
ISBN: 9780307516237
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication: April 2, 2009
Imprint: Knopf
Language: English

D. Nurkse’s Burnt Island explores tragedy both grand and intimate, in city and country, in our own troubled moment and across the greater scope of geological time. Arranged in three “suites” of lucid, often heart-wrenching verse, the book begins with a city under siege, in a group of poems that becomes a subtle homage to New York after 9/11–a metaphorical “burnt island,” where diggers doze on their shovels, citizens contribute bottles of water, M&M’s, and casseroles to recovery efforts, and survivors, mesmerized by the photos of the missing, compare them “scar by scar with the faces of the living.” Nurkse then takes up the journey of a couple starting again in nature at a specific place called Burnt Island, where the elements instruct them, seeming to mirror their conflicts and strife. Finally, in a charming and profound series of poems centered on marine ecology, he finds the infinite in the infinitesimally small, and offers us, in sparkling, mysterious verses, the strange comfort that comes with observing the life of the ocean.

we are like you
because we are born by the billions
and float into the open ocean–
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
we live another second
or much less, less than a blink,

until the code comes to know itself
and the mind dreams another mind
that will survive it
there, in the bright curtain of spray.

(from “The Granite Coast”)

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

D. Nurkse’s Burnt Island explores tragedy both grand and intimate, in city and country, in our own troubled moment and across the greater scope of geological time. Arranged in three “suites” of lucid, often heart-wrenching verse, the book begins with a city under siege, in a group of poems that becomes a subtle homage to New York after 9/11–a metaphorical “burnt island,” where diggers doze on their shovels, citizens contribute bottles of water, M&M’s, and casseroles to recovery efforts, and survivors, mesmerized by the photos of the missing, compare them “scar by scar with the faces of the living.” Nurkse then takes up the journey of a couple starting again in nature at a specific place called Burnt Island, where the elements instruct them, seeming to mirror their conflicts and strife. Finally, in a charming and profound series of poems centered on marine ecology, he finds the infinite in the infinitesimally small, and offers us, in sparkling, mysterious verses, the strange comfort that comes with observing the life of the ocean.

we are like you
because we are born by the billions
and float into the open ocean–
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
we live another second
or much less, less than a blink,

until the code comes to know itself
and the mind dreams another mind
that will survive it
there, in the bright curtain of spray.

(from “The Granite Coast”)

More books from Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

Cover of the book The Lady in Gold by D. Nurkse
Cover of the book Sunlight and Joy by D. Nurkse
Cover of the book Salvation by D. Nurkse
Cover of the book Life for Me Ain't Been No Crystal Stair by D. Nurkse
Cover of the book The Personality Brokers by D. Nurkse
Cover of the book Self's Murder by D. Nurkse
Cover of the book Trading Twelves by D. Nurkse
Cover of the book The Future of Ice by D. Nurkse
Cover of the book A Life of Picasso by D. Nurkse
Cover of the book Autumn in Venice by D. Nurkse
Cover of the book The Double Comfort Safari Club by D. Nurkse
Cover of the book La breve y maravillosa vida de Óscar Wao by D. Nurkse
Cover of the book Long Time Leaving by D. Nurkse
Cover of the book How to Set a Fire and Why by D. Nurkse
Cover of the book Negocios by D. Nurkse
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy