Mastering the Pen by Ellie Augustin | One Poem Only

One Poem Only · Apr 9, 2026 · 2m

A daily reading from One Poem Only—a quiet space for a single poem, read aloud.

Mastering the Pen

Ellie Augustin

I learned the weight of a pen

the way warriors learn steel

not in theory,

but in the quiet repetition

of showing up again.

By survival.

In my hand, it is not delicate.

It is trained.

It knows how to press into a sentence

and when to lift,

how to cut cleanly

without tearing the page.

I learned this among books.

Among shelves that hold

what others survived long enough to say.

Among spines that stand upright

after everything it took to write them.

This is where I am safest

inside ink…