Amassing Grace For The Seventh Year
Evie Groch
About Evie Groch
Evie Groch, Ed.D. is a Field Supervisor/Mentor for new administrators in Graduate Schools of Education. She started her own education in a Yeshiva Day School in East L.A., and after moving north, she and her husband were one of 13 founding members of Tehiya Day School for the Jewish children and others in the Bay Area. Her opinion pieces, humor, poems, short stories, recipes, word challenges, and other articles have been widely published in the New York Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Contra Costa Times, The Journal, Games Magazine, and many online venues. Many of her poems are in published anthologies. Her short stories, poems, and memoir pieces have won her recognition and awards. Her travelogues have been published online with Grand Circle Travel. The themes of travel, language, and immigration are special for her.
About Amassing Grace For The Seventh Year
In cheder, we weren’t taught about climate change, ravages of drought, taking care of plants and animals, but we did learn about Shmita. Those stories have come back to visit me, but in a more personal sense. The orthodoxy must now step up and interact with nature in a way I have not seen them do before. This poems weds men to trees and sows the seeds of cooperation, collaboration, and communication to preserve both species.
The congregation of snow-covered trees,
like pious men in their prayer shawls,
chant Amen in their open air sanctuary.
They stand leaning and swaying,
forced into choreographed movements
while being rooting to one spot,
not daring to skip out on prayers.
I do not join them
but am with them in spirit.
They stand in gratitude,
acknowledging their bond
with the earth and whisper
in its language in the breeze
that rustles the leaves,
brings down kindness,
generosity as shade is offered,
fruit is borne, and rest is received.
Rootless no longer,
the trees and elders
know it’s time
to sit out the dance this year.