Theodore Roethke wrote poems that attempted to connect the inner and outer worlds we inhabit simultaneously. While exploring the outer world, it is important we find quiet in the inner world. In those quiet moments, moving back and forth we find ourselves staying.
The metaphor comparing this movement to that of a snail challenges me to think deeply about what living and breathing mindfully is. What do I notice? And, who and what notices me? As I move, am I sensitive to the world that I move through? Or, do I walk heavily chasing those who which to join me away?
The spirit moves,
Yet stays:
Stirs as a blossom stirs,
Still wet from its bud-sheath,
Slowly unfolding,
Turning in the light with its tendrils;
Plays as a minnow plays,
Tethered to a limp weed, swinging,
Tail around, nosing in and out of the current,
Its shadows loose, a watery finger;
Moves, like the snail,
Still inward,
Taking and embracing its surroundings,
Never wishing itself away,
Unafraid of what it is,
A music in a hood,
A small thing,
Singing.
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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.
ivonprefontaine
Teacher as Transformer 
People move too fast through life. They are always in a hurry so they really don’t have time to connect with the world around them on a personal level. They have business to attend to. Glad I’m a snail.
I am slowing down, as well. Age has a way of doing that. I am grateful, because I take in the world differently.
I have been slow for most of my life. The children always liked to go with me because I went slowly and let them stop to check out whatever they wanted. My grandson and I watched a caterpillar for a half hour one time. He always liked to go with me because he said, “You’re never in a hurry.”
That is a wonderful story. Young children benefit from us not being in a hurry.
Thanks for sharing Ivon,,. it is a wonderful poem!
You are welcome and thank you Wendell.
This you Ivon a Light Breather. I have noticed.
Thank you.
Reminds me of Roethke’s lines, “In my hand like a bowl, danced my own soul, small as an elf, all by itself. ” I may not have that exactly right, but it is close. I think that is one of the first entries I made in the journal we had to keep for a writing class in college. Our professor had studied under Roethke. I have an entry about him in my blog. Good work, Ivon.
Thank you Judy. When I read a biographical piece about Roethke, it indicated his students (your professor perhaps) loved him and his quirkiness as a teacher. He crawled out the window, crept along the ledge, and stuck out his tongue at each window he passed. He emphasized the use of journals and recording observations about the world as integral to written creativity.
I don’t know if you’ve read this, Ivon, but if not, here is the link. I think Mr. Cole was as quirky as his idol…Mr. Roethke! http://judydykstrabrown.com/2015/02/01/mr-cole/
Thank you. I will read it.
I really appreciate your posting this poem, one of my favorites, Ivon. May I ask that, in the future, you preserve the format as Roethke, or any other poet, had it? Since you have carefully followed his line breaks, punctuation, etc., following the left-justified format he chose would also honor his work. Printed the original way, the shape of the lines puts greater emphasis on the move/stay dichotomy. I know it’s a small thing, but I think it matters.