Recently, Charles Coté spoke with Boa Editions poet Kazim Ali about his book, The Fortieth Day, his earlier publications, his methods as a poet, and his philosophies as a writer. The interview is detailed and intensely thoughtful, focusing in on specific lines, images, techniques, and motifs that Kazim Ali uses in his poetry. Fans of Ali's work will certainly learn a great deal about his poetry and process from this thought-provoking interview. The following is a short excerpt from the interview:

Coté: Another line in your collection, in the poem "The Far Mosque", the last line - "a person is only a metaphor for the place he wants to go" - came as a great surprise. What can you say about the place you wanted to go in this collection, or the place you found yourself going? Ali: Let me say first off that the poem "The Far Mosque" was a reflection back on my book The Far Mosque. I didn't want a poem with that title in the first book. There's no poem called “The Fortieth Day” in my new book but I want to write that poem. I think The Fortieth Day was my effort to understand the place that I want to go as where I actually am. So here I am, on the fortieth day. There's a line something like this: "On the fortieth night we’ll understand that the storm is never going to end and there's never going to being anything else than what we have right now."

The full interview can be read at Charles Coté's blog.