I have many favourite poets that I always return to at various times. Wendell Berry is one of those poets. The words inspire me to pause, soak them in, and not rush on too quickly.
Sometimes just experiencing the primal world before I think about it is wonderful and filled with wonder as miracles show themselves slowly. It leaves me thoughtful and full of thought as I just, ponder, do not tax my life too much with forethought.
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
About ivonprefontaine
In keeping with bell hooks and Noam Chomsky, I consider myself a public and dissident intellectual. Part of my work is to move beyond (transcend) institutional dogmas that bind me to defend freedom, raising my voice to be heard on behalf of those who seek equity and justice in all their forms.
I completed my PhD in Philosophy of Leadership Studies at Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA. My dissertation and research was how teachers experience becoming teachers and their role as leaders.
I focus on leading, communicating, and innovating in organizations. This includes mindfuful servant-leadership, World Cafe events, Appreciative Inquiry, and expressing one's self through creativity. I offer retreats, workshops, and presentations that can be tailored to your organzations specific needs.
I published peer reviewed articles about schools as learning organizations, currere as an ethical pursuit, and hope as an essential element of adult eductaion. I published three poems and am currently preparing my poetry to publish as an anthology of poetry.
I present on mindful leadership, servant leadership, schools as learning organizations, how teachers experience becoming teachers, assessement, and critical thinking. I facilitate mindfulness, hospitality retreats. and World Cafe Events using Appreciative Inquiry.
I am writing and researching about various forms of leadership, how teachers inform and form their identity as a particular teacher, schools as learning organizations, hope and its anticipatory relationship with the future, and hope as an essential element in learning.
Teacher as Transformer 
Such wonderful reflections
of natural healing from Wendell Berry.
Today I paddled
then laid back in the canoe
and drifted with the cloudless sky 🙂
That sounds so beautiful and filled with wonder (wonderful).
Just beautiful!
It is.
Wonderful poem my brother, thanks for sharing! Have a wonderful Sunday!
Thank you Wendell. I did. I hope yours was good, as well.
Beautiful, and thought provoking.
I find most of his poems that way.
Perfect for me today.
I am glad you found it good Emilie.
So very, very, very beautiful. Thank you for that.
You are welcome.
A wonderful poem and thoughts that really resonate with me. Thanks for sharing, Ivon.
I am glad you enjoyed it. You are welcome.
Reblogged this on Sacred Touches.
This too is a favorite of mine. Nature can be so calming and restorative.
It is a great place to just be with one’s self.
I have loved this poem since I discovered it in a book called Earth Prayers. I shall get a book of Wendell Berry’s poems one day.
His poetry is easy to fall in love with.
Yes, wonderful poem, and so true! The wildlife of this world is not distracted with the foolish trivialities of our human world. This would explain why my Dad used to love going on long walks with the dog and just absorbing nature and wildlife for a while, he found life very stressful, being out in the open was his way of restoring his sanity. I think he was right, we all need it! 🙂
It is a space of rejuvenation.
Beautiful-I find peace in the outdoors as well. It is humbling to see how small weaare in the scheme of things, yet how important each part is to the whole… beebee
It is humbling, but wonderful and awe-inspiring. There is paradox in that.
A lovely, lovely poem. I really enjoyed reading this. Well done.
Thank you.