D. Nurske was the Brooklyn Poet Laureate two poet laureates ago (Tina Chang currently holds that honor). His books of poems are published by Knoph, which makes him an unusual poet because “major publishing houses” don’t publish much in the way of contemporary poetry.

He’s considered a major American poet, I guess.

A resident of Brooklyn, he is the author of nine books of poetry, including Voices Over Water, The Fall (Knopf) and, Burnt Island. He has received in Whiting Writers’ Award, two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, and a Tanne Foundation Award.

I’ve saw him read at Park Slope’s Community Bookstore in 2008 and he was quiet, thoughtful and compelling, as are his poems.

Now he has a new book out called A Night in Brooklyn, which you can get as a paper-and-glue book or as an eBook. Here’s the wonderful title poem from the book and it’s about a night of love in a narrow Brooklyn bed. I love it.

A Night in Brooklyn

We undid a button,

turned out the light,

and in that narrow bed

we built the great city —

water towers, cisterns,

hot asphalt roofs, parks,

septic tanks, arterial roads,

Canarsie, the intricate channels,

the seacoast, underwater mountains,

bluffs, islands, the next continent,

using only the palms of our hands

and the tips of our tongues, next

we made darkness itself, by then

it was time for daybreak

and we closed our eyes

until the sun rose

and we had to take it all to pieces

for there could be only one Brooklyn.