Caroline Knapp
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.