Boston Review Books

Islam and the Challenge of Democracy
by Khaled Abou El Fadl
(Princeton University Press)

Facilitas

Sleight of logic or hand by which of longing
you make good        wanting not

not to want        what you want        but to want it with

full sanction        you seek

a reason to seek that which you seek
without reason        waking

from a sleep of tears        into a life
of tears        each new vision still

more perfect than the last        as in your dream

where you lie opened groin to sternum
like a fish

—Garth Greenwell

Garth Greenwell is a Mellon Fellow at Harvard University, where he studies English literature. He has new poems in Salmagundi, Pleiades, and elsewhere.

Originally published in the December 2004/January 2005 issue of Boston Review