15 Comments
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Melanie Bettinelli's avatar

My fifth grade teacher read Island of the Blue Dolphins to us.

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Margaret Ann Silver's avatar

That was probably around the time I read it, too :).

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Judith Silver's avatar

Love this and you!

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Margaret Ann Silver's avatar

Thank you, Mom. I love you too.

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Lizzy Co (she/they)'s avatar

Wow, I haven’t thought of that book in years. Time travel!

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Margaret Ann Silver's avatar

Isn’t it!?!? I haven’t read it in a long time, but it has never left me.

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LeeAnn Pickrell's avatar

There’s something so powerful about this line:

I’ve never been where I’m going.

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Margaret Ann Silver's avatar

Thank you, LeeAnn 💛. I meant that literally, but I can see now that it applies to so much more. Thank you for pointing that out 💛.

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Serena Menken's avatar

I definitely remember that book! I hear the heaviness you are carrying in your words. I can relate to the heaviness of fear.

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Margaret Ann Silver's avatar

It’s an unforgettable book 💛. Yes, the heaviness was pretty all-consuming when I wrote this poem. I felt so much better crossing back (time with a friend was such a help).

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India Flint's avatar

I read it , and at some point was taken to see the movie. Perhaps it’s my neurodivergent mind, but all I recall of it now is that it made me want to live in an island, without other humans .

That island longing has stayed with me for nearly sixty years…and taken me to many, though family r responsibilities have kept me from actually moving to one . Funny how our minds wrap around things in different ways.

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Margaret Ann Silver's avatar

When I first read it, I wanted to live on an island too—if I could be so self-sufficient as I remember the main character being. But I hated that the real-life Lone Woman died so soon after leaving. It colored the book backwards for me (but I couldn’t stop reading it).

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India Flint's avatar

I’d forgotten that aspect. The rose-coloured spectacles of retrospection…

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MK Creel's avatar

It is tiring to be scared all of the time. Worry is a thief.

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Weston Parker's avatar

It is a difficult burden to live with fears but that seems to be a consequence of living and so we must live with it. Good job, and thanks Margaret. We are soon to head out to Swans Island, off the coast of Bar Harbor.

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