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Little by little, gradually — the same as poco a poco. It qualifies another direction (poi a poi più moto, poi a poi crescendo) rather than standing alone.
Printed beside the direction it qualifies — above the staff for tempo, below it for dynamics — sometimes followed by dashes that carry the change on. The change it describes unfolds over the following bars until a new tempo or dynamic marks its goal.
Poi a poi is the rarer, older-sounding twin of poco a poco; Beethoven uses it in the finale of Op. 110 and glosses it in German as nach und nach. Use either, but keep to one in a score so the reader is not left wondering whether they differ. Give the change room — the more bars it spans, the more gradual the performer will make it — and print the goal (f, a tempo) where it should arrive.
Beethoven, Piano Sonata No. 31 in A-flat major, Op. 110, finale: late in the fugue, after “Meno allegro. Etwas langsamer”, Beethoven prints “poi a poi” with the German “nach und nach” beside it, then “più moto” — the return to speed given in both languages.
Poi a poi is one of 1755 terms in the Gradus musical dictionary: the words, abbreviations and instrument names that appear in printed scores, plus the vocabulary composers use to talk about them.
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