Shownotes
One Poem Only is a daily poetry podcast offering a quiet moment with a single poem—read aloud, without analysis or noise.
Melancholy Ink
Dita Indradi
Sadness learned my name
before I learned how to answer.
It waits
behind my teeth
when I say I’m fine.
I used to shake
the moment I knew.
Hands too loud.
Breath missing.
My heart running
like it heard something
I couldn’t.
Heat rushing
through narrow places,
every nerve lit up
looking for an exit.
Now, when the same knowing comes,
my body does something else.
It goes quiet.
No shaking.
No warning.
Just the sudden absence
of feeling.
Like someone
stepped out of the room
and left the lights on.
I bleed without sound
and call it ink.
Silence presses its thumb
into my chest,
not to hurt me—
just checking
if I’m still here.
Some poems begin as tears
I don’t feel
until much later.
Others are the way
I leave the moment
without moving.
I write from places
that never healed right,
only learned
how to disappear.
Melancholy isn’t how I feel.
It’s how my hand moves
when I stay.
I mourn
what almost worked,
what hurt enough
to teach my body
how to leave.
I don’t write to be heard.
I write
so the sadness knows
someone stayed
when I couldn’t.
More from Dita Indradi ↓
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One Poem Only submissions are open.
I’m filling the next chapter of One Poem Only and would love to include your work. Send me the poem you wrote and want the world to hear. New this round: if you’d like to read your own poem on the podcast, you can. No need for a perfect studio recording—just a clear audio file recorded in a quiet space. If you choose this option, you’ll submit your poem and an audio file of you reading it. Submissions close Thursday, July 30. I’ll respond by August 12. Whether I read your poem or you read it yourself, I’d love to hear what you’re ready to share.
