Affect States

 
this spring’s
all veils

but fervently crocus
I

come to a lip
and hear

the streambed issuing
within

will you strange and
tenderly

undone
the lintel

allowing
light

and still
the valleys’ ribs

fill
with blossom

a wild
surfeit

all drift
trembles

what’s open
must alter

Untitled

 
Do you be gone
already

liquidity

sphere of the trans-fixed
stars

Affect States

 
following
feeling paths

intimations of

there will be
a bent

soft progress

or shell incisions
rain combs

the finite real particular
distance

within knowing

whatever is curved
shadow will fill

this is
increase

when I went
seeking I

cast an arc so wide
loss measured me

a flood

replete now

sense edges
stay ragged

reticulate leaves
catch

in what wind

Affect States

 
undevised arrival
of light in

soft chambers

there is
aperture

there are those
whose gesture

makes always away
or save me

there are those
who stumble

in opne in
ope in

open chambers
the

leaf lights
itself entirely

there
is aperture

even in
waiting

there is
what never

comes within
again

in brihgte in
break in

bright
chamber

there is waiting
there is gesture

there is
in what is spilled

some gather

the box of
matches scattered

may be so joined

in flamme in
rags in

torches in hope
in shooting pains

in trouble in
stutter in love’s

undisguised provenance

in material
passage in flight

in flames
the dancers keep

entering the room

Caroline Knapp’s poems have appeared in Jubilat, Verse Daily, and CutBank, and her chapbook Facture is available from Little Red Leaves. She lives in Oakland, California.