I made a promise coming into the school year. I would keep my head, do only what I can, and not flounder. I won’t let things get me down. I find solace in writing, nature, with Kathy, and in reading poetry. Some days I just open a book and find a poem which speaks to me in such a clear voice I think the poet stands or sits across from me sharing their words. That is what happened with this poem by Vaclav Havel.
It is I who must begin,
Once I begin, once I try—
here and now,
right where I am,
not excusing myself
by saying that things
would be easier elsewhere,
without grand speeches and
ostentatious gestures,
but all the more persistently
—to live in harmony
with the “voice of Being,” as I
understand it within myself
—as soon as I begin that,
I suddenly discover,
to my surprise, that
I am neither the only one,
nor the first,
nor the most important one
to have set out upon the road.
Whether all is really lost
or not depends entirely on
whether or not I am lost.
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 
How true, Ivon… How true..
I agree. He was an amazing and gifted person. His wisdom fortunately is still with us.
wonderful stuff from a wonderful man… if only all presidents were like him!!!!
He was a poet, writer, and creative genius who became a president without losing his humanity.
“without speeches and ostentatious gestures…”
Those are pretty challenging and humbling words he presented us with.
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Great poem to share with us all. Thank you.
Thank you David.
These words inspired and humbled me at the same time. It speaks of personal responsibility and integrity and how each of us must make that decision to first transform ourselves. Make that change. Be that change. Thank you Ivon. Sharon
You are welcome Sharon.
very nice
Hello,
Please can you tell me where I can find the original Czech version of this wonderful poem?
I am not sure. I have only seen the poem in English, but I am sure it would have been written in Czech originally. I tried a couple of searches but did not find anything.
I must proclaim that it is a little bit misleading to interpret this text like a poem by Václav Havel. He was sentenced to imprisonment by the communist regime from 1979 to 1983. Originally it was written as a letter (absolutely not as the poem!) to his wife Olga from prison in 1982. So that’s why the text presented here is only a reduced extract from the last paragraph of Letter to Olga n. 142 in translation by Paul Wilson (Letters to Olga, New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 1988, p. 369). All the texts written by Václav Havel are available after registration on the website of the Václav Havel Library (http://archive.vaclavhavel-library.org/kvh_search/?language=en)
Thank you for the kind sharing. It is appreciated.
Oh I love this poem. Thank you for choosing to follow my blog. I’m looking forward to your posts as I follow yours. Blessings, Natalie 🙂
Thank you for the comment Natalie. Take care.
Havel is a genius, thank you for posting
You are welcome Cindy. He most certainly was and is with words that live on.
This is a meaningful poem, sometimes, it would seem so easy just to give up. beebee
It certainly can. When we look at the odds people like Vaclav Havel faced and continued on, it helps keep things in perspective.
I love a teacher that give it their all! If you inspire but one student, that student will carry your creativity and teachings into the future.
That is the teaching goal. We touch and inspire one at a time.