Will I See You In Silence Soon? 4-1-08

Keeping Quiet

by Pablo Neruda


Now we will count to twelve
and we will all keep still.

This one time upon the earth,
let’s not speak any language,
let’s stop for one second,
and not move our arms so much.

It would be a delicious moment,
without hurry, without locomotives,
all of us would be together
in a sudden uneasiness.

The fishermen in the cold sea
would do no harm to the whales
and the peasant gathering salt
would look at his torn hands.

Those who prepare green wars,
wars of gas, wars of fire,
victories without survivors,
would put on clean clothing
and would walk alongside their brothers
in the shade, without doing a thing.

What I want shouldn’t be confused
with final inactivity:
life alone is what matters,
I want nothing to do with death.

If we weren’t unanimous
about keeping our lives so much in motion,

if we could do nothing for once,
perhaps a great silence would
interrupt this sadness,
this never understanding ourselves
and threatening ourselves with death,
perhaps the earth is teaching us
when everything seems to be dead
and then everything is alive.

Now I will count to twelve
and you keep quiet and I’ll go.


San Francisco, Inside the Ferry Building market plaza, April 1 at 9 AM.
Ferry Building Market Place, One Ferry Building San Francisco California at Embarcadero and Market Street

Though out the world people will gather in squares, stations, in organizations or wherever they are and stop their motion for 5 minutes.

Pause for thought. Pause for human kind. Pause for our planet.

Be in the main hall inside the Ferry Building Marketplace on April 1 at 9AM and freeze your position. Have your mobile phone alarm set for 9:05AM so that you know when to start moving again.

Let your friends know so they can join you! Or encourage them to make an event where they are!

So far we have simultaneous April 1 events in:
London Paddington, 5 pm.
Malmö Gustav Adolfs Torg, 6 pm.
NYC, Grand Central Station, noon.
San Francisco, Ferry Building, 9 am.
Copenhagen, Central Station, 6 pm.
Florence, Piazza Duomo, 6 pm.
Brussels, Grand Place, 17.30pm
Milan, Galleria Vitt. Emanuelle II, 6 pm.
Portland Oregon, to be announced.
English farmer freeze, to be announced.

This event is inspired by the ImprovEverywhere freezing in place performance in Grand Central Station. Check out the video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwMj3PJDxuo


Come out and be part of the spectacle!