Poetry X Hunger
  • Home
  • Art Auction to Alleviate Hunger
  • Hunger Poetry
    • Hunger Poems
    • World Food Day Poetry Competition >
      • 2021
      • 2020
      • 2019
      • 2018
    • Maryland Poets
    • International Poets
  • About
    • About the Initiative
    • Initiative Founder
    • Advisory Board
  • News & Blog
  • Young!
    • Poems by Young Poets
    • Videos
    • Materials for Teachers
  • Library
    • Extent of Hunger >
      • Global Hunger: Progress & Challenges
      • Hunger in the US
    • Historic Accounts of Hunger >
      • Africa
      • The Americas
      • Asia
      • Europe and Russia
    • Historical Poems
    • Interviews
    • Recent highlights
  • Contact/Submit/Take Action
    • Submission Guidelines
    • Call to Action
    • Resources & Donations >
      • Global resources
      • US resources
      • Maryland resources

Poems submitted for the 2020 World Food Day Poetry Competition
​Thank you for your patience while we are uploading them!

Poem by Zeina Azzam

11/11/2020

6 Comments

 
Seed

Seed, so tightly wound,
a tiny world waiting
for rain, rays, and
welcoming ground

to uncage your dream
unfurl your flag
create this intention
of brown and bright green.

Stem and leaves growing
as you open to the earth,
your small hands reach out
like rivulets, upward flowing

toward the nurturing sun.
Seed, this is the hope 
you hold, our heritage
wrapped up in just one

small ovule, bud, grain,
to place in our pockets,
save for our children who,
like us, will pray for rain,

for many good seeds
that send green hands up
through generous soil
to proliferate, proffer, feed

the world. We plant and plow
for those in the womb
and onward to the white haired
among us, believing now

is the time to end hunger.
Seed, your dream is our harvest.
Together we nourish,
embody your wonder.

​Here is the link to Zeina's video of her reading her poem: https://youtu.be/WspyzkYdjuE
Picture
Zeina Azzam is a Palestinian American poet, writer, editor, and community activist. Her poems have been published in a number of literary journals and anthologies including Pleiades, Sukoon Magazine, Mizna, Split this Rock, Cordite Poetry Review, Making Mirrors: Writing/Righting by Refugees, and Gaza Unsilenced. She serves on the board of Growing Palestine, an organization that supports farmers in the West Bank and Gaza. Zeina holds an M.A. in Arabic literature from Georgetown University.
Photo credit: Jeff Norman

6 Comments
Snobar
11/29/2020 09:31:04 am

Wonderful. Many meanings including a very personal one! Well done!
Kim

Reply
Zeina Azzam
11/29/2020 12:38:48 pm

Thank you so much!

Reply
Cathy
11/29/2020 07:42:30 pm

Thank you zeina. Lovely. A wonderful statement of hope at a difficult time.

Reply
Zeina Azzam
11/29/2020 07:59:42 pm

I so appreciate your kind comment. Thank you!

Reply
Rebecca
12/2/2020 03:31:08 pm

A lovely example of the wonder of poetry -- taking something small and growing it into something large in very few words.

Reply
Zeina Azzam
12/2/2020 10:12:50 pm

Poems are like seeds! We grow together. Thank you for your kind response.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Poems

    These poems were submitted for the 2020 WFD Poetry Competition

    Archives

    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020

    Poets

    All
    Brenda Bunting
    Brittany Sabatino
    Chris Biles
    Cynthia Martin
    Don Krieger
    Liz Davenport
    Michael Ratcliffe
    Najya Williams
    Padma Priya Rajagopal
    Patti Ross
    Paul Guenette
    Q.R.Quasar
    Regina Coll
    Ronald David Myers
    Sally Toner
    Taiwo Adesina
    Zeina Azzam

    RSS Feed

Copyright PoetryXHunger 2022


Search the website:

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • Art Auction to Alleviate Hunger
  • Hunger Poetry
    • Hunger Poems
    • World Food Day Poetry Competition >
      • 2021
      • 2020
      • 2019
      • 2018
    • Maryland Poets
    • International Poets
  • About
    • About the Initiative
    • Initiative Founder
    • Advisory Board
  • News & Blog
  • Young!
    • Poems by Young Poets
    • Videos
    • Materials for Teachers
  • Library
    • Extent of Hunger >
      • Global Hunger: Progress & Challenges
      • Hunger in the US
    • Historic Accounts of Hunger >
      • Africa
      • The Americas
      • Asia
      • Europe and Russia
    • Historical Poems
    • Interviews
    • Recent highlights
  • Contact/Submit/Take Action
    • Submission Guidelines
    • Call to Action
    • Resources & Donations >
      • Global resources
      • US resources
      • Maryland resources