Teacher as Transformer

Posted on February 27, 2013 by ivonprefontaine

Gary Snyder is a wonderful poet who writes about many things that go unobserved. Take care, have a great day, and transform the ordinary into the extraordinary.

Silver Birch Press

MAGPIE’S SONG

by Gary Snyder

Six A.M.,

Sat down on excavation gravel

by juniper and desert S.P. tracks

interstate 80 not far off

between trucks

Coyotes—maybe three

howling and yapping from a rise.

Magpie on a bough

Tipped his head and said,

“Here in the mind, brother

Turquoise blue.

I wouldn’t fool you.

Smell the breeze

It came through all the trees

No need to fear

What’s ahead

Snow up on the hills west

Will be there every year

be at rest.

A feather on the ground–

The wind sound—

Here in the Mind, Brother,

Turquoise Blue”

“Magpie’s Song” by Gary Snyder is included in BRIGHT WINGS: An Illustrated Anthology of Poems About Birds, Edited by Billy Collins with Paintings by David Allen Sibley. This gorgeous, uplifting, inspiring book is available…

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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, nonviolence and its anticipatory relationship with the future, as essential elements to teaching and learning. Academic publications can be found at Ivon Gile Prefontaine on ResearchGate

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14 responses »

ShimonZ | February 27, 2013 at 3:11 pm

very nice poem
- ivonprefontaine | February 28, 2013 at 1:55 am
  
  Thank you Shimon. Good to hear from you.
lenwilliamscarver | February 27, 2013 at 3:17 pm

It is so nice to come over for a visit you always seem to have such inspiring uplifting poems and stories. thank you so much for taking the time to share these with us. You are appreciated and a great writer yourself so more of yours please. 🙂 Have a blessed day!
- ivonprefontaine | February 28, 2013 at 1:55 am
  
  Thank you Len. I have one for today that will be going up shortly.
annotating60 | February 27, 2013 at 3:58 pm

My favorite lines of his are ‘if my heart were peaceful
it would be like this.’

I would gladly feature Snyder for a Poet for a Week spot if you care to select the poems you think best exemplifies his breadth.>KB
- ivonprefontaine | February 28, 2013 at 1:53 am
  
  I will do that. When would you like them?
Laurie Buchanan | February 27, 2013 at 4:37 pm

Beautiful. Simply beautiful.
- ivonprefontaine | February 28, 2013 at 1:53 am
  
  Gary Snyder does have a simple way to provide imagery.
Pam | February 27, 2013 at 5:55 pm

Ivon – It’s always so nice to see poetry presented here. I appreciate your introducing it to us. If you would like to see some that I’ve written over the past decade, visit Edge Zones: explorations in poetry and art. (It’s my other wordpress blog.) I began writing it when I took poetry workshop for a year as part of my MFA degree in painting and drawing. It has stuck with me.
- ivonprefontaine | February 28, 2013 at 1:52 am
  
  Pam, I found my way over there and will be following your other blog as well. I love poetry and found my way back to it about a year ago when I needed to fill an emerging creative void in my life. It is sticking.
  - Pam | February 28, 2013 at 3:46 am
    
    Thanks so much for your interest and taking the time.
  - ivonprefontaine | March 1, 2013 at 12:41 am
    
    I love poetry that much.
Jamie Dedes | February 28, 2013 at 1:15 am

Appreciate this. Puts a nice close on my day.
- ivonprefontaine | February 28, 2013 at 1:42 am
  
  I am glad it closed your day nicely Jamie.