{"product_id":"the-fall-isbn-9780375709760","title":"The Fall","description":"In this elegant collection, D. Nurkse elegizes a lost father, a foreshortened childhood, and \u003cbr\u003ea young marriage. From the drenched lawns of suburbia to the streets of Brooklyn, he delivers up the small but crucial epiphanies that propel an American coming-of-age and chronicles the development of a tender yet exacting consciousness. As the diversions of childhood prefigure the heartbreak of adulthood, Nurkse captures the exquisite sadness of each small “fall” that carries us further from our early innocence. In the book’s final section, the poet turns to face mortality with a series of stirring poems about illness in midlife. Throughout, Nurkse celebrates the sheer strangeness of our perceptions in a language that is both astute and surpassingly lyrical.“Nurkse, former poet laureate of Brooklyn, excels at conveying . . . [a] kind of unaccompanied loneliness . . . [He] soberly relates the cruelties of the world.”\u003cbr\u003e–Time Out New York\u003cbr\u003e“D. Nurkse’s \u003ci\u003eThe Fall \u003c\/i\u003efeatures three highly personal sequences of poems concerning death, love, and illness. Their drama and the universality of their themes draw us in . . . \u003ci\u003eThe Fall\u003c\/i\u003e–mystical, mesmerizing, elegant–is a cat’s eye of a collection.” \u003cbr\u003e–Bill Christophersen, Poetry\u003cbr\u003e“D. Nurkse, despite his modesty, seems to be weaving poetry’s various movements towards a cohesive zenith, which takes him beyond characterization. He may be a contemporary poet, but his words will live beyond him.”\u003cbr\u003e–Anne Hamilton, Memphis Commercial Appeal\u003cbr\u003e“A collection of exquisitely-shaped poems highlighted by the poet’s gift for delicate yet piercing epiphanies.”\u003cbr\u003e–Dennis Loy Johnson, Athens Banner-Herald\u003cbr\u003e“Nurkse’s style is simple, almost conversational, yet underneath the words, the reader senses great emotion.”\u003cbr\u003e–Library JournalD. Nurkse is the author of seven books of poetry. He has received the Whiting Writers’ Award, two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, two grants from the New York Foundation for the Arts, a Tanne Foundation award, and the Bess Hokin Prize from Poetry. He has also written widely on human rights.\u003cb\u003eRed-And-Silver Schwinn\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI would never learn.\u003cbr\u003eShe would never love me.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen I wriggled on that cruel seat\u003cbr\u003ea blind force--perhaps hope--\u003cbr\u003esmashed me into the sprinkler system.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEven when I wheeled it,\u003cbr\u003ethe bike jack-knifed.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt seemed the fall\u003cbr\u003ewas planned within me.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePolite with rage\u003cbr\u003eI refused trainer wheels.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI carried the frame tenderly\u003cbr\u003eover newly sodded lawns.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOnce it was my burden\u003cbr\u003ethere was nowhere we could not go.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSunlight\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI trained a magnifying glass \u003cbr\u003eon the ant with the crumb \u003cbr\u003eand he stepped away \u003cbr\u003efrom the pool of light. \u003cbr\u003eI held the beam \u003cbr\u003ewherever he was going. \u003cbr\u003eAt once he shriveled \u003cbr\u003eto a tiny black line \u003cbr\u003ewhose ends rose slowly \u003cbr\u003eto meet each other. \u003cbr\u003eI aimed at my hand \u003cbr\u003eand sensed that fire \u003cbr\u003einfinitely distant, close, \u003cbr\u003ethen inside me: \u003cbr\u003ewhen I dropped the lens\u003cbr\u003e I felt no comfort \u003cbr\u003eand called my father's name.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eNorthbound\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA bell tolled six times \u003cbr\u003eon an island in the fog \u003cbr\u003eand my father turned toward it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAngelus or a signal? \u003cbr\u003eWhere the reefs must be, \u003cbr\u003ea buoy chimed at random.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHow to row toward a voice \u003cbr\u003eonce it has fallen silent? \u003cbr\u003eHe listened tight-lipped:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ebitterns, gagging laughter, \u003cbr\u003eslap and hiss of Castine, \u003cbr\u003ecreaking oars, my crying.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA white hand cupped us \u003cbr\u003eso we faced each other \u003cbr\u003eentirely inside the mind.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThen he began stroking powerfully, \u003cbr\u003ea vein swelled on his forehead, \u003cbr\u003ehis blue knuckles rose like pistons,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eeven I could sense us circle \u003cbr\u003eunder the spell of his right arm, \u003cbr\u003eand he lost himself counting\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ein his exile's language-- \u003cbr\u003etwenty, a thousand, as if our home \u003cbr\u003elay beyond those enormous numbers.","brand":"Knopf","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46301769990373,"sku":"NP9780375709760","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780375709760.jpg?v=1767739276","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/the-fall-isbn-9780375709760","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}