The Capacity to Affect and to Be Affected

Explanations of the concept of 'affect' make it feel more akin to dark matter - perceivable only by the push-pull effects it has on the space around it, the body's life force as Spinoza frames it. Larger than emotions and individual sentiments, but nevertheless part of the same family, it encapsulates so much of our lived embodied experience.

Oxford Dictionary defines 'capacity' as the maximum amount that something can contain, fully occupying the available area or space. "The Capacity to Affect and to Be Affected" refers to the interplay of language and emotion that we both take onto ourselves and manifest externally.  To 'internalize' and to 'externalize,' seen not as opposing forces, but merely as points on a plane defined by 'affect' and 'affected' - a deliberate testing of the limits of its boundaries, encroaching on the parameters of its containment.

// harmful feelings that I harbor

I find ways and spaces to wedge them into you while looking for language to hold on to

// on to the next thing

// smoothing over the thorns of your words

my hands grow calloused

where the skin cracks I find more space

// more room to open up

// to feel

// to fill with meaning