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A Country of Strangers by D. Nurkse
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A Country of Strangers

New and Selected Poems

New and Selected Poems

New and Selected Poems

By D. Nurkse

By D. Nurkse

By D. Nurkse

By D. Nurkse

By D. Nurkse

By D. Nurkse

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Category: Poetry

Category: Poetry

Category: Poetry | Audiobooks

Hardcover

Apr 19, 2022 | ISBN 9780593321409

Ebook

Apr 19, 2022 | ISBN 9780593321416

Audiobook Download

Apr 19, 2022 | 300 Minutes

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    About A Country of Strangers

    The selected poems of an essential American poet, who has cast a clear eye on our politics, our places, and our heart’s hidden stories over eleven books and thirty-five years.
     

    D. Nurkse’s immigrant parents met on a boat out of Europe in 1940; he was a child of the generation whose anxieties were forged in the shadow of Hiroshima and the aftermath of WWII. His poems extend that child’s dignified ignorance into an open encounter with the cataclysms of the latter twentieth century and with family structures.
     
    Whispers of the old country of Estonia provide the backdrop for the boy’s baseballs, thrown in the fading twilight of the 1950s (“Secretly, I was proudest of my skill / at standing alone in the darkness”). The young man explores sexual passion and the arrival of a child in a young marriage (“We showed her daylight in our cupped hands”), while the mature poet writes of loneliness and community in our cities (“but on the streets / there was no one”), and the urgent need for us to keep expressing our will as citizens.
     
    Throughout this matchless career, Nurkse has crafted visceral lines that celebrate the fragility of what simply exists—birdsong, moonrise, illness, water towers—and the complexity of human perception, our stumble forward through it toward understanding. 

    About A Country of Strangers

    The selected poems of an essential American poet, who has cast a clear eye on our politics, our places, and our heart’s hidden stories over eleven books and thirty-five years.
     

    D. Nurkse’s immigrant parents met on a boat out of Europe in 1940; he was a child of the generation whose anxieties were forged in the shadow of Hiroshima and the aftermath of WWII. His poems extend that child’s dignified ignorance into an open encounter with the cataclysms of the latter twentieth century and with family structures.
     
    Whispers of the old country of Estonia provide the backdrop for the boy’s baseballs, thrown in the fading twilight of the 1950s (“Secretly, I was proudest of my skill / at standing alone in the darkness”). The young man explores sexual passion and the arrival of a child in a young marriage (“We showed her daylight in our cupped hands”), while the mature poet writes of loneliness and community in our cities (“but on the streets / there was no one”), and the urgent need for us to keep expressing our will as citizens.
     
    Throughout this matchless career, Nurkse has crafted visceral lines that celebrate the fragility of what simply exists—birdsong, moonrise, illness, water towers—and the complexity of human perception, our stumble forward through it toward understanding. 

    About A Country of Strangers

    The selected poems of an essential American poet, who has cast a clear eye on our politics, our places, and our heart’s hidden stories over eleven books and thirty-five years.
     

    D. Nurkse’s immigrant parents met on a boat out of Europe in 1940; he was a child of the generation whose anxieties were forged in the shadow of Hiroshima and the aftermath of WWII. His poems extend that child’s dignified ignorance into an open encounter with the cataclysms of the latter twentieth century and with family structures.
     
    Whispers of the old country of Estonia provide the backdrop for the boy’s baseballs, thrown in the fading twilight of the 1950s (“Secretly, I was proudest of my skill / at standing alone in the darkness”). The young man explores sexual passion and the arrival of a child in a young marriage (“We showed her daylight in our cupped hands”), while the mature poet writes of loneliness and community in our cities (“but on the streets / there was no one”), and the urgent need for us to keep expressing our will as citizens.
     
    Throughout this matchless career, Nurkse has crafted visceral lines that celebrate the fragility of what simply exists—birdsong, moonrise, illness, water towers—and the complexity of human perception, our stumble forward through it toward understanding. 

    Also by D. Nurkse

    The Border Kingdom
    Love in the Last Days
    A Night in Brooklyn
    Burnt Island
    The Fall
    See all books by D. Nurkse

    Also by D. Nurkse

    The Border Kingdom
    Love in the Last Days
    A Night in Brooklyn
    Burnt Island
    The Fall
    See all books by D. Nurkse

    Also by D. Nurkse

    The Border Kingdom
    Love in the Last Days
    A Night in Brooklyn
    Burnt Island
    The Fall
    See all books by D. Nurkse

    About D. Nurkse

    D. NURKSE is the author of eleven previous books of poetry. His many honors include a Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a Guggenheim Fellowship. His poems have appeared in periodicals such as The New Yorker, The… More about D. Nurkse

    About D. Nurkse

    D. NURKSE is the author of eleven previous books of poetry. His many honors include a Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a Guggenheim Fellowship. His poems have appeared in periodicals such as The New Yorker, The… More about D. Nurkse

    About D. Nurkse

    D. NURKSE is the author of eleven previous books of poetry. His many honors include a Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a Guggenheim Fellowship. His poems have appeared in periodicals such as The New Yorker, The… More about D. Nurkse

    Product Details

    Category: Poetry

    Hardcover | $30.00
    Published by Knopf
    Apr 19, 2022 | 336 Pages | 6-1/8 x 9-1/4 | ISBN 9780593321409

    Category: Poetry

    Ebook | $15.99
    Published by Knopf
    Apr 19, 2022 | 336 Pages | ISBN 9780593321416

    Category: Poetry | Audiobooks

    Audiobook Download | $15.00
    Published by Random House Audio
    Apr 19, 2022 | 300 Minutes | ISBN 9780593551837

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