Program in Creative Writing at Syracuse University (1997–2024),[2] and the author of at least ten volumes of poetry.
A retrospective analysis of Burkard's poetry following the publication of his selected and "uncollected" poems in 2008 (Envelope of Night), noted the influence of Robert Creeley, Denise Levertov, Wallace Stevens, and Tomas Tranströmer.
[10] Some of the critical analysis places him in various poetic legacies and lineages, including Surrealism and The New American Poetry.
Later on, by the decade of the 2000s, the Harvard Review says, Burkard's work was "invested in a metaphysics of relationship, probing into how we treat each other (and hence ourselves).
"[11] Other reviewers from the same time period also noted that where Burkard goes wrong is when he reverts back to a style of "simple Confessionalism," even while the best of them "break from reality and American lyrical status quo to offer timeless, elegant revelations.