This is not a poem, but Walt Whitman used poetic language and deep meditative thought it qualifies. He used language in ways that are politically incorrect today, but provided considerable insight into what it might mean to be a servant-leader and live in the world that way.
I become part of the world and it is embodied in me in such remarkable ways as I learn from the world. I think that is the counsel that this passage provides for me and asks of me.
“This is what you shall do: love the earth and the sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning god, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons with the young and the mother of families, read these leaves in the open air every season in every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body…”
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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 and its anticipatory relationship with the future, and hope as an essential element in learning.
Teacher as Transformer 
You are indeed right about the political correctness…and it is unfortunate that this is the case. These words are powerful and for some readers are transcendent of the bickering that would otherwise break out, should it be shared widely today. The words are certainly apropos of the day, yet the meaning is clear if one looks beyond the words to the intention behind them. Lovely.
Thank you Carrie. His words truly resonate today and would make such a difference to the world we live in if we listened.
Love this Ivon, thank you.
Thank you and you are welcome David.
wonderful words from Whitman
who experienced so much horror
and blood during the civil war.
clear and tender guidance to live fully
open-minded and compassionately
with a heart in the world
yet undisturbed by it
aspiring to be of service
with gratitude and humility.
Very nice reply – well said.
Thank you for such a beautiful comment. Whitman’s words and your words inspire.
Wonderful!
Thank you.
I love Walt Whitman. Thank you for sharing. His wordcraft was excellent. Hugs, Barbara
You are welcome Barbara. He had an incredible way with words that resonates across time. Take care.
Reblogged this on idealisticrebel.
Thank you. Enjoyed reading this.
You are welcome and thank you Jean-Jacques.
Thank you for sharing Walt Whitman’s words of wisdom for living a good life in our troubled world. I especially liked “… go freely with powerful uneducated persons with the young and the mother of families.”
That line struck me as well. As a teacher, I loved being with children. They had so much to give us and mothers are the key to strong community.
Walt Whitman… HL=huge like since hugschool… 🙂
Thank you for the comment Melanie. He always had a way of connecting things in his riting.
Reblogged this on GYA today.
Thank you for the re-blog Paul. It is appreciated.
No these words would be unpopular today when greed is the ruler of the land.
They would be in that context.
Reblogged this on Gr8fullsoul.
Thank you for the re-blog. It is greatly appreciated.
You put up a good post here but, when I was in College in one of my History classes I was given Walt Whitman as the subject matter of a report I had to write. I really didn’t know anything about him except that he was a writer of some kind and that there is a big toll bridge that bears his name on it from South Philly over into Jersey. I did a lot of homework on this person and there is absolutely nothing good that I know of to say about him. I titled my report “Walt Whitman The Pedifle Poet” and I still feal that same way about that person.
I also taught school. For the most part of my life. If there any stories you wish to use in class for discussion I would be honored if you do so. Who knows, at this late date I still wish to stay in the classroom with my ideas.
I am now retired, but I do appreciate the kind offer Barry.
I retired to, do you miss it?
Once a teacher., always a teacher. I miss the classroom. It was the bureaucracy and technocracy that caused me to leave. I would go back if allowed to be me which I was allowed until the last few years.
I also found the same problems. There was to much drama with the administration and it had little to do with teaching.
That is so true. Once out of the classroom, if they ever wanted to be there, administrators often lost sight of what they entered education to accomplish.
The money and position of power truly corrupts the pure thoughts of change. Many give up and what remains is those who have sold out and work to maintain what they original stood against.
That is very well said Barry. I know many teachers leave the classroom feeling they can change things from outside, but the only real change comes from inside and moves outwards.
I’ve read very little of Walt Whitman, and am now looking forward even more to discovering his poetry.
Thanks also, Ivon, for visiting my site.
You are welcome. He was a poet before his times and very progressive in his thinking belonging to the same school as Thoreau.