April 22, 2008

Today's poem is from The Fortieth Day, just published by BOA Editions. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.

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Also on Poets.org

Between Sleeping and Dreaming
• An Evening Train
by Timothy Liu
• Ballad
by Sonia Sanchez
• At Night the States
by Alice Notley

Related Prose
• Survival in Two Worlds at Once
by Tracy K. Smith

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Sleep Door
by Kazim Ali

a light knocking on the sleep door
like the sound of a rope striking the side of a boat

heard underwater
boats pulling up alongside each other

beneath the surface we rub up against each other
will we capsize in

the surge and silence
of waking from sleep

you are a lost canoe, navigating by me
I am the star map tonight

all the failed echoes
don't matter

the painted-over murals
don't matter

you can find your way to me
by the faint star-lamp

we are a fleet now
our prows zeroing in

praying in the wind
to spin like haywire compasses

toward whichever direction
will have us