Light

Along with the idea of heat, we get light in this poem. Like Starsky and Hutch, heat and light are two things that just go together. Think of fire, for example. While a central heating system doesn't necessarily go along with light, there's a lot of imagery and symbolism dealing with light in the poem. The typical metaphor meaning of "light" in a phrase like "I see the light!" paints light as a symbol for knowledge and revelation. Think, as you read the poem, what these revelations and knowledge might be.

• Lines 1-2: These first two lines start us off with the idea of light—a tiny little light. At this point, for all we know, this light is just literally a light, perhaps a shaft of sunlight coming through the crack in a blind. Yet we've also got the idea of central heating, and are reminded, with these lines, of how it would feel to have this light opening up on our stomach, warming us up. 
• Line 3: Here, we get the idea of a flare. We go from the soft light landing on our stomach to, well, a kind of small rocket. We can think of the beauty of this woman's body, giving light to the night sky, and perhaps, our speaker's heart and mind. This is an example of a simile, which is a comparison of two things using the words "like" or "as." 
• Line 4: Now we've got a contrast to the woman stretching like a flare: a woman who is like a shadow. We've got a metaphor, which is a comparison that doesn't use the words like or as, but is a little more subtle and direct. This woman is "a shadow," with no like or as to set us up. We only know that she's a woman, and not a shadow, because she's reading—something humans, not shadows, tend to do. We find out her gender in the next line. 
• Line 11: When we hear spark, we think Nicholas Spark's The Notebook. J/K, gang. We think fire. And when we think fire, we think light. This spark is lit, but debatably just to fade out and die. This could be a metaphor for life—that our life is just a spark, blipped on and then… blipped off. Yet, though this may seem like a negative idea, a spark is a spark. And if life is just a tiny light, it's better to be a light than a darkness. Right? 
• Line 24: Here we get to talking about the electronic element of light—it has to be powered by something to light up, and that something could very well be such a copper wire as is mentioned in the poem. In the literal moment of the poem, the copper wire could be lighting up an actual light bulb, but we can also think about the figurative level. What kind of wires could connect to the light coursing through our bodies, lighting up our eyes, hearts, and minds? There's certainly a light flickering in the mind of our speaker as he explores his thoughts and emotions in this poem. 
• Line 25: This line wraps up the entire course of light throughout the poem by connecting the speaker's lover's heart and the sun. This is kind of a complicated metaphor. There's no direct comparison, but by saying that the heart and the sun are made of the same material, the speaker is indirectly saying that his lover's heart is like the sun.