Somewhat lost in the literature on affect, I decided to switch gear and try to grasp “affect” in free poetic writing. The idea was not to craft a high quality literary poem, but to allow a different register to guide me in the process of understanding affect. My departure point was to make affect the main character in the poem. The rest followed. Here it is.
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Affect is the voice that dares bring the illogical into the frame; that dares make claims with no arguments.
Affect tells the story of the unsaid and is there to contain.
Affect is a space of silence ready—or unready—to open up.
Affect knows the body just as well as it knows the interspace between bodies.
Affect knows the guts; it knows blood pressure; it knows muscle tension, and the nervous system.
Affect knows the touch of a skin against another skin. It knows the release; it knows the abandon—both may be confused but affect knows the difference.
Affect knows when it knows, and affect lets go when it doesn’t.
Affect colours the voice.
Affect reads the ungraspable, and signals it knowing in return.
Affect transmutes.
Affect travels.
Affect repeats.
And affect transforms.