There’s a boy who stands where the door should be.He seems so certain, posing with his secrets intact,pulling us forward by what we cannot say.Do we trust him? There’s no mark of God or countryon him, no signs of madness in the widthand whiteness of his eyes. But the hair self-yankedinto its angular, public shape betrays himas one who has nothing to do with the bodyhe’s standing in. How would a doctor classifythis work of not knowing, that it’s impossibleor temporary or just in our heads?What would anyone who can speak sayto those who were born in the trees,who can detect a squall in the open distant sea,open as it is to you, to me.
The Door that Leads In and In but Never Out
Tom Thompson
Feature Date
- December 20, 2019
Series
Selected By
Share This Poem
Print This Poem
“The Door that Leads In and In but Never Out” from Passenger
© 2018 by Tom Thompson. Appears with the permission of Four Way Books.
All rights reserved.
Tom Thompson is the author of Passenger, published by Four Way Books in 2018, as well as Live Feed and The Pitch, both published by Alice James Books. He has degrees from Dartmouth College, University of Sussex (UK), and the University of Iowa. His poems, essays, and reviews have appeared widely. A long-time advertising executive, he currently works at St. Martin’s Press and lives in New York City with his family.
"Tom Thompson's Passenger is a complicated, possessed portrait of the storms that inhabit, course through, and animate our minds, in and out of time..."
—Catherine Barnett
"With radical hospitality and good, dark humor, Tom Thompson encourages a care for the world and the imagination in ways that few other poets do, in ways I never thought (in Dickinson's word) 'possibler.' He's one of my favorite writers, and it's a pleasure to know what he has to say."
—Graham Foust
"...The book's passengers go on journeys that are visionary and sometimes disillusioning: through parenthood, faith, illness, death and love; intervening in and altering the lives of living things, from children to geraniums. Passenger is a beautiful and moving book by a masterful poet."
—Geoffrey Nutter
Poetry Daily Depends on You
With your support, we make reading the best contemporary poetry a treasured daily experience. Consider a contribution today.
