There’s how I don’t answer the phone, and how I sometimes like to lie down on the floor in the kitchen and pretend I’m not home when people knock. There’s daytime silent when I stare, and a nighttime silent when I do things. There’s shower silent and bath silent and […] car silent and then there’s the silence that comes back, a million times bigger than me, sneaks into my bones and wails and wails and wails until I can’t be quiet anymore. That’s how this machine works.
— Ada Limón, excerpt from “The Quiet Machine”, in Bright Dead Things: Poems
Notes: Portrait by Lucas Marquardt @ About Ada. Passage via antigonick
Live & Learn 
It’s possible to connect to the silence in every part of our lives. I love that she lies down in the kitchen floor ha! 👏
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What? You don’t do that too?
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Oh I will do anything to connect to silence! 🤗
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Silence is a treasure
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Yes!
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Have always marveled at the many distinct forms of silence. The silence of a welcome retreat…a quiet,cool room best suited for a Sunday afternoon nap….versus the silence of one’s home after beloved family and friends have departed. So very different….
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Oh, yes!
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Love Ada Limon – got to participate in a reading she did with WritingxWriters interviewed by Pam Houston … She is a treasure ……
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Wow. So lucky Catharine. She is amazing. Thanks for sharing.
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There are so many levels of silence. Some comforting, some not so much. Love this.
Can’t say I’ve ever tried to hide from whomever at the door, though!
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Oh I have. Let me count the ways!
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Why am I not surprised? I don’t hide… I just don’t answer 😉 Not that anyone who knocks isn’t expected, really so …
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Laughing. Hermit.
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Uh huh…
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Dave, a tall man, who posses wit & confidence,greets life on his own terms, who hides…you hiding, make me think of a bashful boy of yesteryear…and I smile…
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Thank Goodness for that!
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Wow!
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Yes!!!
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Reblogged this on It Is What It Is and commented:
I also have a ‘aquiet machine’ … I can see myself doing the same!! … “That’s how this machine works.” — Ada Limón, excerpt from “The Quiet Machine”, in Bright Dead Things: Poems.
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It’s rarely silent anywhere on my parts of the earth, but I always prefer quiet; the opposite somehow seems a wound.
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So agree with all this. Thank you.
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What Lori and Dale expressed about the types of silence…I agree with their POV’s…///
Growth within Silence is a gift…
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