Calling all poets and poetry lovers! Spend an evening with the poetry of climate change at a virtual open mike. Rabbi Katy Allen and Dr. Thea Iberall will moderate the evening, sharing some of their poetry, inviting others to share theirs, and facilitating a conversation on what the offered poetry brings up for each of us.
We’re in my sleek red Toyota on the 405 freeway
not far from the Pacific Ocean. It’s nighttime and
we’re passing through El Segundo. You ask,
“Should I hold my breath?”
I’m staring at the power plant. I’m staring at my future.
It’s raw and stark
Excerpt from “El Segundo” by Thea Iberall
Rabbi Katy Z. Allen is the co-founder of the Jewish Climate Action Network and also the founder and spiritual leader of Ma’yan Tikvah – A Wellspring of Hope. She received rabbinic ordination from the Academy for Jewish Religion in 2005. Rabbi Katy’s most recent book, A Tree of Life: A Story in Word, Image, and Text is “a meditation on our universal journey through trauma toward healing.”
Thea Iberall is ‘a shimmering bridge between heart and mind.’ An inductee into the International Educators Hall of Fame, Thea has been published in anthologies and journals including in Blood to Remember: American Poets on the Holocaust. Thea’s poems springboard from the personal into moral issues and emotional truths.