Poetry X Hunger
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Hunger Poems

You are encouraged to read the poems posted here from national poets 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 Grace Cavalieri

8/30/2023

0 Comments

 
Honey and Tea

On television I saw the documentary
Of boys sitting on the sand, maybe 50
With a woman cracking a whip over their heads
So they could chant a prayer
They, orphaned and lost, no food or medicine
Left in Africa by the Taliban
All men killed
Flies buzzing
Where were the girls
No I’m not exaggerating
One child held up a paper to shield the sun
They were dead
No life in their eyes
Already dead among the buzzing flies
I long ago asked God how I could still believe
That’s an old question
Now I ask myself
How can I write this
Now I say I do not want this cup.
Picture
Grace Cavalieri is Maryland's tenth Poet Laureate. She founded, and produces, "The Poet and The Poem" from The Library of Congress celebrating 47 years on-air. Her new book is "The Long Game: Poems Selected & New."

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Poem by Lee Allane

8/30/2023

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Mightier than the Sword

Soldier travels from the south
plucks the crumbs from the orphan's mouth
burns the fields and drains the ford
bend a knee before your lord
         Hunger mightier than the sword

No mercy from the burning sun
no bullets needed for his gun
jackals prowl and vultures soar
hunger stalks the killing floor
         A perfect weapon of the war

Brother Famine loves Sister Drought
blind and deaf the land they scout
children's eyes no longer bright
withered limbs too weak for flight
         Hunger kills the will to fight

Daughter of the blighted earth
bears no guilt for famine's birth
doctors flee the healing ward
starvation leads the murder horde
         Hunger mightier than the sword

Listen to what your mother said
submit to rape or join the dead
no saviour from a distant shore
survive to be the victor's whore
         A perfect weapon of the war

Rich men toast the price of wheat
richer still if the poor don't eat
the world outside has closed its eyes
hunger is the bread that cries
         Her body soon the victor's prize

Let her weep and let her pray
if you don't look she'll go away
man has cut earth's fetal cord
watch her starve until you're bored
         ​Hunger mightier than the sword

Click to hear the poet read the poem.

BIO: After leaving university with a degree in philosophy and art history I tried my hands at many things - including working with refugees and homeless charities, designing education programmes, journalism and writing books on oriental and islamic arts and crafts.
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Poem by Sheila Conticello

8/24/2023

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Growing Pains

Juan listens to his stomach growl
The hammering in his head.
It's summer and his school is
                             closed,
No breakfast, lunch today.
He wishes he were old enough
To supplement the pittance
His unschooled mother makes.
    Why did his father leave them?

Their church food closet helps a bit
But they are four in all.
Luckily Juan has learned
To cook an egg
And toast his single slice of bread.
    No fruit or juice today.

Greedily he gulps his food
Though he'd like to eat it slowly.
Satisfied just for a while,
His teen brain starts again
To wonder if there's food for lunch
        Anywhere
     Or empty air?
Picture
I am an 84 year old grandmother, formerly a teacher of high school English in New York city. At age 75, I published a book of poems entitled Or Something Like That, available on Amazon. for the last  year I  have had poems published in my community newspaper.

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Poem by Cathy Warner

8/12/2023

1 Comment

 
For Our Hunger
a chicken
a guitar
a vase
me

We each
in turn
will be taken
by the neck
and

plucked
strummed
filled
wrung

And (sadly)
in the end
broken

but not before
we offer
(I hope)
our little morsel
to this world

a meal
a melody
a bouquet
a poem

“For Our Hunger” first appeared in my 2109 book of poetry Home By Another Road.

Click to hear the poet read the poem.
Picture
Cathy Warner is author of three volumes of poetry: Difficult Gifts: Home By Another Road, and Burnt Offerings; and editor of three anthologies: Poemographs for Peace, Poemographs, and Viral Verse: Poetry of the Pandemic. Cathy writes, takes photographs, and renovates homes in Western Washington. Find her at cathywarner.com.

1 Comment

Poem by Sharon Waller Knutson

8/8/2023

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Wolf at the Door

Mama presses the steam iron
to the Brownie Uniform
I once wore that now
belongs to my sister and then
to the green Girl Scout uniform
I proudly wear. While she puts away
the ironing board, I fry the ground
beef in the skillet and pour tomatoes
and pinto beans in a pot. I’m making
Wolf at the Door for supper to practice
for the scout weekend campout,
I tell Daddy as he carries in
the big box of Girl Scout cookies
Judy and I will be selling door to door.
Daddy peels and dices an onion
and tosses it in the sizzling skillet
sprinkled with salt and pepper.
Judy takes out the graham crackers
and covers them with marshmallows
and chocolate and melts them
on the broiler. Daddy and Mama
always managed to keep our bellies
full and the hungry howling wolf
at the door out of our house.

Originally published in The Leading Ladies of My Life (Cyberwit 2023.)
Picture
Sharon Waller Knutson has published eleven poetry books including What the Clairvoyant Doesn’t Say (Kelsay Books 2021) and her twelfth book, ‘My Grandfather is a Cowboy” is forthcoming in 2024. Her work has also appeared in more than 50 journals.

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Poems by Gary D. Grossman

8/3/2023

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A Glimmer

Planting a garden is revolution--
hope triumphs over despair. Flower
or veggie—all green comes from a smoothie
of crushed rock and humus—spiked with
nitrogen, phosphorous, and micronutrients.

Even seed anatomy amuses—the coat
that keeps all dry and warm, cotyledon,
the battery for growth, hypocotyl
and plumule--stem and shoot, and last
the embryonic root, the radicle,
linking us to the first revolution.

​Seeds are small packages of optimism.
Decisions that light and warmth will prevail
and jonquils or turnips, lilies or peppers
will rise, one or both. There is hope in
nourishing life besides our own—faith
in clear skies and sun, that spring is the pupa
of summer and summer fall. That hope can
be cultivated more easily than cut down.

Verse-Virtual, June 2022

Picking Carrots

It’s March 18th and despite the ground
freeze last weekend, our carrots exude
a craving for examination and
evaluation--intoxication
emanating from the bed of orange, red
and purple heads poking up through rollers
of crushed pine bark and black soil.

The secrets of root vegetables arouse me.

Always a hidden story, always a
probability.

Seeds sown last October, but winter’s
wardrobe was unhemmed, cool, and bright
enough to sugar these painted vegetal fingers.

Now feathery leaves weave the spring breeze,
their scent a lurid promise. I pull the
largest bunch, parting a wave of soil—sand grains
dripping off the root. It is straight, thick and
half a foot long—a clandestine happiness,
like holding a new lover for the first time.

Moving through the bed, I hope for more sticks
of orange candy, not crooked roots—sour as
an old bachelor.

I move to the next patch and wonder,
what secrets the earth will whisper?

Last Stanza Poetry Review #10 2022
Picture
Gary Grossman’s poetry book, Lyrical Years is available from Kelsay Press, his graphic novel My Life in Fish: One Scientist’s Journey, and his cookbook A Bone to Pick… are available from [email protected]. Website: www.garygrossman.net

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Poem by Brenardo

8/1/2023

2 Comments

 
ABOUT HUNGER

A poem about hunger
Is not one of awe, not one of wonder
This thing that grows
Below, Inside
Reflects, Of need Denied
A painful thing to see
A wretched thing to be
In hunger

​A darkness
Sharp, clawing at ones’ being
The lungs, the heart
Messing with the reasoning of the mind
The hope
The emptiness that rises
To the throat
Choking on water
Offering appeasement to the belly
Releasing unrelenting anguish
In a language called despair
The weariness that is telling
The aching, the swelling
The deadly devastation
That stalks in starvation
The extreme
Muffled muted screams
It cries, it sobs
It whimpers in its’ call
The distance
The fierce, intense, insistence
Of the sustenance one needs
Shows Hunger is an enemy to us all
Like the falling of darkness gives rise to gloom and doom
Its’ darker and darker and darker and darker and…

                                         © 2018 Brenardo
Picture
Brenardo aka Andre’ B. Taylor, is a native Washingtonian poet and songwriter. He has been writing for over five decades on all matters of life. His written words have been featured in countless newspapers, magazines, and poetry anthologies, and he is a veteran of stage, radio, and television, and United States Navy who believes in being of service to the word which graces him to help others.

2 Comments

Poem by Chip Williford

8/1/2023

1 Comment

 
Salty Growls
By Chip Williford

A full plate
of hunger Pain
fills my belly

Salty Growls
Snapping fast
Eats all desire


​Placed before me
Lacking Substance
An outdated menu
nourishing depression
leaving nothing else
Picture
Chip Williford is a prose, poetry, and short story writer, equal rights advocate and activist, filmmaker, documentarian, family historian, good listener, and relatable storyteller. He co-host Poetry Street “The Room Without A Roof”, with Maggie Bloomfield.
www.poetrystreetontheroad.com


1 Comment

    Suggestions & Ideas

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

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  • Home
  • About
    • About the Initiative
    • Initiative Founder
    • Recipients and Donors
  • Hunger Poetry
    • e-Collection
    • Hunger Poems
    • World Food Day Poetry Competition >
      • 2021
      • 2020
      • 2019
      • 2018
    • Maryland Poets
    • International Poets
  • ART
    • ART Inspired Poems
  • 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 >
      • Global resources
      • US resources
      • Maryland resources