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Hunger Poems

You are encouraged to read the poems posted here and elsewhere on the

Poetry X Hunger website, to look  
at 
the historic accounts of hunger,

famine and starvation, or consider the ​prompts suggested and then...

​write some poetry about hunger.
 

Poem by Jefferson Carter

1/16/2021

1 Comment

 
SQUAB
The poem was first published in The Chiron Review               


Driving to yoga this morning, I saw
a flock of pigeons raveling & unraveling
above the palm trees. Our city’s poet laureate 
writes about pigeons as avatars of love.
What did I see? Protein on the wing.


Our laureate compares feral pigeons 
to street people, both declared unsanitary 
urban pests, the birds’ bodies contaminated 
by heavy metals, but whose aren’t?


I want to be a good person, stop child abuse,
take back the night, fight poverty.  I’m 
ashamed I eat when I’m not hungry.


No more memes on Facebook, no more 
feel-good marches, let’s learn to mend nets, 
scald feathers, to gut & to spatchcock, let’s
deliver tons & tons of pigeon meat to shelters 
& soup kitchens, saying, “Enjoy!  It’s squab!”
Picture
Jefferson Carter has poems in such journals as Barrow Street, Cream City Review, and Rattle.  Chax Press published Get Serious: New and Selected Poems, chosen as a Southwest Best Book of 2013 by the Tucson/Pima County Public Library.  In 2020, Presa Press released his eleventh collection, Birkenstock Blues.
He lives in Tucson with his wife Connie.  He’s a passionate supporter of Sky Island Alliance, a regionally-based environmental organization.
 

1 Comment

Poem by Kim B Miller

1/16/2021

6 Comments

 
The Hunger Dialect
​

We sip on tea flavored with righteousness indignation
Add a touch of honey dripping in our own gluttony
While we slowly speak the dialect of hunger
We claim to be ambitious on solutions 
But truth says we have never met
We spread lies evenly
As if, evenness eliminates detection 
Hungry people see a world of excess who view starvation as avoidable
Victim shaming is our specialty
This dialect of deception is clearly recognizable
The language we lie with is so bitter, even when dripping off of sweet religious lips
We can’t feed everybody
Here comes the lie
We embrace the acceptance that doing nothing is equal to trying
Yet we continuously knit together new excuses with old lies 
We shame hungry people on full stomachs and then we rewrite the narrative
Imagine a world that throws away enough food to feed the hungry complaining about loss
While the population who has food insecurity is waiting to be found 
Empty stomachs are not looking for empty words
We need long term, right now, sustainable actions
Let’s plant fruits and vegetables and let freedom be the gardener
Allow people to pick fresh food from their community greenery
Have community barbeques and well placed public pantries
Donate to trusted restaurants so they can offer free meals to those in need
Create central areas for restaurants to bring food instead of throwing it away
Let’s reinvent how we distribute food
Make it easier to ask without asking
And no more pretty phrases for ugly things
Starvation is not “food insecurity”
Is death “breathing insecurity”
Our appetite for synonyms seems high
Hunger has many levels
And a need to make hunger definable to all is needed
Let’s make sure we are not using it to avoid saying words that sting
Starvation is a “life insecurity”
Action is the cure
But we’re too busy slicing up excuses
While hungry people look at an empty plate full of indecision
We don’t even offer them a cup of hope
Click on the file below to listen to Kim reading her poem:
audio_only.m4a
File Size: 3286 kb
File Type: m4a
Download File

Picture
Kim B Miller is an award winning poet. She is the Poet Laureate for Prince William County, VA. She is the First African American Poet Laureate for PWC. Kim performed nationally in person and internationally online. She is the author of several books. You can find more about Kim at www.kimbmiller.com

6 Comments

Poem by Milton Carp

1/16/2021

2 Comments

 
HUNGER IS A SYMPTOM

WAR AND A RAVAGED LAND,
CORRUPT AND INEPT GOVERNMENT,
DROUGHT AND PESTILENCE,
BOTTOM LINE ENTERPRISES STRIP
THE LAND OF OLD GROWTH FOREST,
AND MINERALS ARE THE GENESIS
OF HUNGER.

THE BENEFACTORS OF HUNGER
ARE THE PEOPLE, THE POOR AND
DOWNTRODDEN. THOSE MOST
UNABLE TO FIGHT BACK, THE HELPLESS.
THE MOST HELPLESS ARE THE CHILDREN
WHO BEAR THE BRUNT OF HUNGER.

SO AS ALL CAN SEE, HUNGER IS BUT A
SYMPTOM OF MAN’S INHUMANITY TO MAN,
OF GREED AND POWER WHICH FEEDS THE
PLAGUE OF HUNGER ON THE MASSES.

IT IS A HUMANE ACT TO DOLE OUT MEALS
TO THOSE IN NEED, BUT WHAT ABOUT
TOMORROW? THE CANCER IS SYSTEMIC.
THE CURE IS NOT AN EASY ONE. IT WILL
TAKE TIME AND MUCH EFFORT. WHAT IS
EASY IS TO START, TODAY WOULD BE GOOD.
Picture
Milton Carp from Fort Lauderdale, Florida is a 91 year old who has been writing poetry for a little over a year.  He lost his wife of 68 years in 2019, and is reinventing himself through the perfect vehicle of poetry. 

2 Comments

Poem by Debbi Brody

1/10/2021

0 Comments

 
There are people  in the world so hungry that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.
-M S Gandhi

They helicopter in hay for cows in Chama
stuck in nine feet of snow covered grazing
land. Cattle huddle together for warmth,
less organized than arctic penguins, these girls 
continuously shuffle towards the center.

Where they once grew rice, Haitian 
families buy mud cookies to fill
their bellies, the cost of real fare
impossible.


Behind the train station in New Delhi,
small children, shorter than your waste,
scavenge in dumps for scraps of food,
fight off dogs for every morsel....

Yet,
we
count
sheep
before
we
sleep.


"It is good people who make good places."Anna Sewell
Picture
Debbi Brody is an avid attendee and leader of poetry workshops throughout the USA’s southwest. She has been published in numerous national and regional journals and anthologies of note including Poetica, Broomweed, Sin Fronteras.  Her newest full length book, In Everything, Birds, (Village Books Press, OKC, OK, 2015) and her chapbook, Walking the Arroyo (Cyberwit, 2019) is available at independent bookstores, on-line book sources and through the author for signed copies.

0 Comments

Poem by Zane Yinger

1/10/2021

0 Comments

 
My Hunger is Real
 
My hands itch 
With the want to tear into a fresh loaf 
To have nose tickled by the warm yeasty steam 
 
My hands itch 
With the want to peel the rind from an orange 
And feel its succulent lobes part under my teeth 
Sour sticky juices dripping from my chin 
 
The nail of my finger scrapes into the fleshy pad of my thumb
Anxiously sniffing and searching my empty hands 
 
My guts ache and roll like anguished worms 
I try to breathe, though my eyes go glassy 
As I choke on empty pain 
 
A passing man offers me a magazine
Promising hot gossip and tantalizing entries 
 
How dare the world offer me brain candy 
Whilst my knotted stomach threatens to eat itself into nothingness 
Like an ancient snake 
 
I want real candy 
For my real stomach

Click on the file below to hear Zane reading their poem:
hunger_poem.m4a
File Size: 451 kb
File Type: m4a
Download File

Picture
Zane is a 2nd year college student studying botany and Spanish. They are an artist and newfound poet. They hope to use their art as a platform to communicate and share real struggles and experiences.

0 Comments

    Suggestions & Ideas

    Take a look at some of the writing prompts to get inspired!

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    Poets

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    A.G. Kawamura
    Anne Harding Woodworth
    Argos MacCallum
    Blair Ewing
    Brenda Bunting
    Brian Manyati Aka Towandah Ryan
    C.C. Arshagra
    Christopher T. George
    Cliff Bernier
    Debbi Brody
    Dee Allen
    Don Hamaliuk
    Dorothy Lowrie
    Ed Zahniser
    Eileen Trauth
    Elise Power
    Emily Vargas-Barón
    Eric Forsbergh
    Evan Belize
    Gayle Lauradunn
    Glynn Axelrod
    Grace Beeler
    Grace Cavalieri
    Heather Banks
    Holly Wilson
    Jay Carpenter
    Jay Carson
    Jefferson Carter
    Jeffrey Banks
    Joan Dobbie
    J R Turek
    Judy Kronenfeld
    Julie Fisher
    Kalpna Singh-Chitnis
    Kari Gunter-Seymour
    Kathamann
    Kim B Miller
    Kitty Cardwell
    Kitty Jospé
    Laura McGinnis
    Linda Dove
    Linda Trott Dickman
    Lindsay Barba
    Lisa Biggar
    Lynn Axelrod
    Margaret Brittingham
    Martha E. Snell
    Michael Glaser
    Michael Minassian
    Milton Carp
    Naima Penniman
    Nan Meneely
    Naomi Ayla
    N Chamchoun
    Philip Harris
    Robbi Nester
    Robert Fleming
    Ron Shapiro
    Sharon Anderson
    Sherrell Wigal
    T. A. Niles
    T.A. Niles
    Theresa Richard
    Tom Donlon
    Vickisa
    Vincent J Calone
    V.j.calone
    William Rivera
    Zane Yinger

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  • 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