Reviews for Islands

The average rating for Islands based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-12-23 00:00:00 Devin Moore The poems in D. Nurkse's "Burnt Island" give us an acute sense of the separateness of fellow travelers, whether they are family or perfect strangers in the midst of shared disaster, shared experience of any kind. He gets how people absorb the feelings and emotions of others, how indelibly we are imprinted by those around us, those who have come before us, and how we will affect the people who come after us, and the places we inhabit today. In his poems of devastation, whether man-made or natural, which include some of the most moving and harrowing 9/11 poems I've read, he manages the exact right balance of poetic distance and human engagement. The language is vivid with both violence and beauty in the words. Throughout, he has the ability to communicate seemingly unbearable pain, yet make the reader want more. Despite desolation and melancholy, he finds wonder; his work is always sensual no matter how abstract his images may get, the poems remain rooted in the senses. Dennis places us in the moment, using the sound of words as much as literal meaning. The poems in "Burnt Island" show that no matter how evolved we think we are, we are very near to the smallest creature, the most basic plant life. And how, reckoning that, we may become enriched, aware of the fragility of existence and more connected to the essence of our own being.

Review # 2 was written on 2013-08-11 00:00:00 Wayne Anderson Just reread this book after seeing Dennis read a few weeks back--beautiful haunting lyric poems, many engaging the biological sciences and using its language. Risky, musically vibrant, smart (so smart) and wish, this book is beautiful.