If you want my apartment, sleep in it but let's have a clear understanding: the books are still free agents. If the rocking chair's arms surround you they can also let you go, they can shape the air like a body. I don't want your rent, I want a radiance of attention like the candle's flame when we eat, I mean a kind of awe attending the spaces between us--- Not a roof but a field of stars.
From Scaffolding: Selected Poems by Jane Cooper, published by Tilbury House, Publishers. Copyright © 1993 Jane Cooper. Used with permission.