I begin an extended Sabbath tomorrow morning with a three-day retreat. It has been a productive week and it feels good to take a break from the reading and writing.
I came across this poem by James Wright yesterday. It speaks about the gifts and blessings I miss when I are not attentive. Part of the progress has been a result of good conversations which, at every turn, seem to add something new to the thinking needed to move forward. By looking at what is there, I find what I search for and blossom.
Just off the highway to Rochester Minnesota,
Twilight bounds softly forth on the grass.
And the eyes of those two Indian ponies
Darken within kindness.
They have come gladly out of the willows
To welcome my friend and me.
We step over barbed wire into the pasture
Where they have been grazing all day, alone.
They ripple tensely, they can hardly contain their happiness
That we have come.
They bow shyly as wet swans. They love each other.
There is no loneliness like theirs.
At home once more,
They begin munching the young tuffs of spring in the darkness.
I would like to hold the slenderer one in my arms,
For she has walked over to me
And nuzzled my left hand.
She is black and white,
Her mane falls wild on her forehead,
And the light breeze moves me to caress her long ear
That is as delicate as the skin over a girl’s wrist.
Suddenly I realize
That if I stepped out of my body I would break
Into blossom.
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
Teacher as Transformer 
Such a beautiful poem. I can almost see and feel those horses.
It is a lovely vision when I close my eyes.
You are blessed and your words will touch many others. Shalom, Barbara
Thank you Barbara.
Beautiful!
Thank you.
Beautiful words, almost solemn! Thanks for sharing!!
🙂
Thank you and you are welcome.
your beautiful imagery took me away onto the field with my favorite beast of beauty. thank you.
You are welcome.
I wish you an inspirational and productive retreat.
It was. Thank you Alex
Wishing you a replenishing Sabbath, Ivon!
And thank you for sharing this beautiful poem. 😀
Much love!
Thank you. I enjoyed it.
Good to read, Ivon! 😀
so lovely – refreshing
Thank you.
Thank you … that is beautiful. I wish you a peaceful sabbatical Ivon.
Thank you Sheri. I enjoyed it immensely.
I am so with you re missing a blessing. As I write my blog, I realise how many blessings I have had along the way. Life does provide.
Lovely poem too. Just beautiful.
Thank you.