Melancholy Ink by Dita Indradi | One Poem Only

About this episode

Dita Indradi shares her poem 'Melancholy Ink' exploring themes of sadness and emotional expression.

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…

People in this episode

Host: Maggie Devers

Guest: Dita Indradi

Topics covered

• poetry
• melancholy
• self-reflection
• emotional expression
• writing

Keywords

• poem
• melancholy
• sadness
• writing
• emotions
• self-improvement

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