Nesîmî's collected poems, or dîvân, number about 300, and include ghazals, qasidas (“lyrics”), and rubâ'îs (“quatrains”) in Azerbaijani Turkic, Persian, and Arabic. His Turkic Divan is considered his most important work, contains 250–300 ghazals and more than 150 rubâ'îs. A large body of Bektashi and Alevi poetry is also attributed to Nesîmî, largely as a result of Hurûfî ideas' influence upon those two groups. Shah Ismail I, the founder of Safavid dynasty in Iran, who himself composed a divan in Azerbaijani Turkic under the pen name of Khatai,^[1] praised Nesimi in his poems^[2]

According to the Encyclopedia of Islam:

One of Nesîmî's most famous poems is the gazel beginning with the following lines:

منده صغار ايكى جهان من بو جهانه صغمازام

گوهر لامکان منم كون و مکانه صغمازام

Məndə sığar iki cahan, mən bu cahâna sığmazam

Gövhər-i lâ-məkân mənəm, kövn ü məkâna sığmazam^[3]

Both worlds can fit within me, but in this world I cannot fit

I am the placeless essence, but into existence I cannot fit

The poem serves as an excellent example of Nesîmî's poetic brand of Hurufism in its mystical form. There is a contrast made between the physical and the spiritual worlds, which are seen to be ultimately united in the human being. As such, the human being is seen to partake of the same spiritual essence as God: the phrase lâ-mekân (لامکان), or "the placeless", in the second line is a Sufi term used for God.^[4] The same term, however, can be taken literally as meaning "without a place", and so Nesîmî is also using the term to refer to human physicality.^[5] In his poem, Nesîmî stresses that understanding God is ultimately not possible in this world, though it is nonetheless the duty of human beings to strive for such an understanding. Moreover, as the poem's constant play with the ideas of the physical and the spiritual underlines, Nesîmî calls for this search for understanding to be carried out by people within their own selves. This couplet has been described in different pictures, movies, poems, and other pieces of arts.^[6]

Some of Nesîmî's work is also more specifically Hurûfî in nature, as can be seen in the following quatrain from a long poem:

اوزكى مندن نهان ايتمك ديلرسه ڭ ايتمه غل

گوزلرم ياشڭ روان ايتمك ديلرسه ڭ ايتمه غل

برك نسرین اوزره مسکين زلفكى سن طاغدوب

عاشقى بى خانمان ايتمك ديلرسه ڭ ايتمه غل

Üzünü məndən nihân etmək dilərsən, etməgil

Gözlərim yaşın reəvân etmək dilərsen, etməgil

Bərq-i nəsrin üzrə miskin zülfünü sən dağıdıb

Âşiqi bîxânimân etmək dilərsən, etməgil^[3]

In the quatrain's last line, "Fâ", "Zâd", and "Lâm" are the names of the Arabic letters that together spell out the first name of the founder of Hurufism, Fazl-ullah. As such, Nesîmî is praising his shaykh, or spiritual teacher, and in fact comparing him to God, who is also given the name "Truth" (al-Haqq). Moreover, using the Perso-Arabic letters in the poem in such a manner is a direct manifestation of Hurûfî beliefs insofar as the group expounds a vast and complex letter symbolism in which each letter represents an aspect of the human character, and all the letters together can be seen to represent God.

Nesîmî is also considered a superb love poet, and his poems express the idea of love on both the personal and the spiritual plane. Many of his gazels, for instance, have a high level of emotiveness, as well as expressing a great mastery of language:

اوزكى مندن نهان ايتمك ديلرسه ڭ ايتمه غل

گوزلرم ياشڭ روان ايتمك ديلرسه ڭ ايتمه غل

برك نسرین اوزره مسکين زلفكى سن طاغدوب

عاشقى بى خانمان ايتمك ديلرسه ڭ ايتمه غل

Üzünü menden nihân etmek dilersen, etmegil

Gözlerim yaşın revân etmek dilersen, etmegil

Berq-i nesrin üzre miskin zülfünü sen dağıdıb

Âşiqi bîxânimân etmek dilersen, etmegil^[3]

Should you want to veil your face from me, oh please do not!

Should you want to make my tears flow, oh please do not!

Should you want to lay your hair of musk atop the rose

And leave your lover destitute, oh please do not!