In Your Own Words: thumbnail, wrist

"Only Stars" by Dave Malone

Hello, Poetry Friend

I received this poem from Dave Malone himself, along with his poetry collection Tornado Drill, which will be our inspiration for my September mini-course, In Your Own Words. It’s a night poem, and I love night poems. It’s a love poem, and, well … I love those too.

Many love poems name parts of the body, but the ones described in this poem surprised me. They include “thumbnail” and “knob of your wrist.”

Only Stars

A week without you,
the moon grows thinner,

Once your thumbnail, now barely
the lobe of your ear. Soon total shadow

hiding your body in space.

In another week, the moon will rise
the slender knob of your wrist,

then become your entire hand
you open up with my name

where only stars know light.

– Dave Malone

I know exactly what my love’s entire hands look like. Where they are unique. How they feel.

Malone’s poem takes place at night, after a week apart from the loved one. There will soon be “total shadow,” but that’s not the end of the poem. “In another week,” when the moon is new and dark, “the moon will rise” to a place “where only stars know light.”

Even darkness, even absence, cannot erase the light of an “entire hand.” Of a wrist. Of a thumbnail.

Poetry Journal

• Read Malone’s poem. Jot down what you notice, what you like, what you don’t, what questions you have, and at least one way in which the poem speaks to you.

• Describe the hands of someone you love.

• Read the poem again, aloud (if you didn’t the first time). Is there anything you notice this time that you want to add to your journal?

• What unusual body parts could you write a poem about? A mole on the arm? Wiry gray hairs? If you like, email me what you write. (My poem is at meganwillome.com.)

Happy Poeming!

Megan

Registration for In Your Own Words is open at meganwillome.com. Come join us and meet storms with words.