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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. 

Poems by Maggie Bloomfield

2/7/2025

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Soup of the Day

In the soup!
Something soupy
or mushy
like cream of mushroom,
or brothy
like chicken noodle ,
thick
like pea!

Soupy!
The weather, the air.
the toxic waste.

Chowder, consommé. chili, stew,
poured from Andy’s can
or started with a chicken’s
decimated carcass.

Sip, slurp, dip
a silver spoon.

the well-fed feed
while the poor boil plants, roots,
tree bark in filthy water,
add dirt for thickness,
a witch’s brew
for the impoverished.
Spit out splinters and teeth,
leave the table with belly and soul
starved.

I was a Lucky One

My mother cooked
naively,
tuna casseroles, pigs
in blankets,
meat loaf.
Once I moved to the city,
I mocked her skill
to take a perfectly good
roast beef
and turn it into
a small black rock.

My parents worked hard
to feed us.
They offered love,
support, education
and countless meals.
                  I would trade the organic
                  vegetables and cereals
                  I am privileged to eat
                  to spend an hour
                  ​chewing my mother’s Sunday roast.
Food was available, plentiful,
enough to fill a stomach, healthy enough
to grow
me.
Picture
Maggie Bloomfield is a psychotherapist/ poet/playwright/performer, Emmy-winning lyricist, Sesame Street. Two chapbooks: Trains of Thought, Local Gems, 2017, Sleepless Nights, Finishing Line Press, 2020. Poems appear in Oberon, PPA Journal, The Southampton Review (TSR), NCPL, and more. She receive an MFA from Stony Brook, Southampton (SBSH). Maggie co-hosts Poetry Street, a hybrid poetry venue, at The Riverhead Library and on ZOOM.
www.maggiebloomfield.com


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Poem by Megha Sood

1/29/2025

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Ingredients for Happiness

They say kindness comes from the heart
But hunger pierces a man the most
My mother always said,
So learn to soothe that hunger
those incessant wanting,
those innumerable desires.

Those that sit precariously between the soft folds of our soul
That jagged hunger that only can be satiated
by those deft supple wrinkled hands
coated with the flour and oil
kneading the dough on the warm summer afternoon
soaked by the apricity of the sun.

What is the definition of happiness?
There are many yet none.

A belly stuffed with the desire
to be fed an ambrosial meal by the loved ones
A lingering need that clings to
our soft parts thick as greed
waiting to grow,
wanting to heal.

Those moments pitted with joy,
Those moments pregnant
with the proximity of the loved ones
brimming with passion
soaked with the unending desires
acts like a tourniquet for our bleeding self.

As we gather around the whistling teapot
surrounded by the verdant greens of Gaia
embellished with the soft pockets of clouds
floating carelessly on a warm summer afternoon
suffused with healing and nostalgia in equal measures

Those precious moments
when the air is suffused with the aroma
of warm freshly cooked home meal
douse the desires in your belly
and syncopates with the mellifluous melody
of the long-lost tunes.

What more could a heart want?

Then to be around the kitchen table
a sole witness of our contentment and wanting;
for times unknown,
Where every grain of the wood is ingrained
with the little joys and nostalgia of life
lived to the brim
stripped of its loneliness,
brimming with unmeasurable elation

Of being together as one family
kneaded like a lump of dough
as a dollop of the milky white moon;
waiting to rise
out of warmth,
Together.

First published in Visual Verse Vol 8 Chapter 09, Archived at New Castle Centre for Literary Arts, UK.
Picture
Megha Sood is an award-winning Asian-American author, poet, editor, and literary activist from New Jersey. Literary Partner with “Life in Quarantine”, at Stanford University. Her four poetry collections include the award-winning (My Body Lives Like a Threat, FlowerSong Press, 2022), (“My Body Is Not an Apology, FinishingLine Press, 2022), and (“Language of the Wound is Love, FlowerSong Press, 2025). She has received support from VONA, Pen Women, Dodge Foundation, Kundiman, and Martha’s Vineyard Writing Institute. Her 900+ works have been featured in PSNY, MS Magazine, NYPL, Pen Magazine, PBS, and WNYC Studio. Her poems and co-edited anthology “The Medusa Project” have been selected to be sent to the moon in 2025 in collaboration with NASA/SpaceX. Link: https://linktr.ee/meghasood

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Poem by Nan Meneely

1/23/2025

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Center City, Gaza

Children proffer bowls
Tables teeter on rubble
Someone ladles love

BIO: Nan Meneely has loved working with Haven's Harvest to rescue food. She has published two books with Antrim House. Letter from Italy, 1945 was named by the Hartford Courant as one of thirteen important books by 2013 Connecticut writers. Simple Absence, published in 2020, was nominated for the National Book Award.
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Poem by Duane L Herrmann

1/20/2025

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HUNGER WILL NOT END
​

Hunger can not end,
as long as greed
is respected and admired,
and money is the prize
for depriving others
of their basic lives.

Don't applaud the rich
until they give away
excess millions wealth,
not necessary
for their own needs.

No one should starve
while others have much more
than they can need.

The most effective change,
can only be in hearts
that recognize belonging
to our human family.
Picture
A reluctant carbon-based life-form, Duane L Herrmann was surprised to find himself on a farm in Kansas in 1951. His work has been published in print and online, even some of both in languages he can’t read. These include a sci fi novel, nine collections of poetry, two collections of short stories, a local history, stories for children and more. He has carried baby kittens in his mouth, petted snakes, and has had conversations with owls, but is careful not to anger them! All this, despite a traumatic, abusive childhood embellished with dyslexia, ADHD; now compounded by cyclothymia, and anxiety disorder, and PTSD.

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Poem by Wayne Lee

1/4/2025

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Spring, again

Famine in Yemen, gunmen in New Zealand,
catastrophic flooding across the Great Plains.

Spring is a promise, not a guarantee.
The planet shifts on its axis, a wobbling top,

and every day we must learn to stand and walk
again, watching for falling planes overhead,
the first green shoots of crocus underfoot.

This poem first appeared in the anthology We Don’t Break, We Burn: Poems of Resiliency.

Picture
Writer, editor and teacher Wayne Lee (wayneleepoet.com) lives in Santa Fe, NM. Lee’s poems have appeared in Tupelo Press, Slipstream, Nimrod, The New Guard, Writer’s Digest and other journals and anthologies. He was awarded the Fischer Prize and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and three Best of the Net Awards. His collection The Underside of Light was a finalist for the 2014 New Mexico/Arizona Book Award and his collection Dining on Salt: Four Seasons of Septets is forthcoming from Cornerstone Press in 2025. Lee is the founder and host of the online Tuesday Poetry Practice community.

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Poem by Neal Grace

1/3/2025

2 Comments

 
Hunger

Tear off the doors of grain silos
so the grain flows unimpeded
from the fertile plains of America
to the remote villages of Africa.

Ship the ripe fruits of the tropics
to the emaciated children in the Middle East.

Quench the parched mouths of young women,
ready to give birth, with fresh, cool waters
from the gushing cascades
in the mountains of Canada.

No one should ever know the debilitating pain
of hunger!
Not when food is rampant throughout the world.

No one should have to watch their bodies shrink
in suffocating heat
while they become victims to starvation.
Not when a banquet of food is spread
in elegant displays in the palatial assemblies
of presidents and prime ministers.

No one needs to stagger on weak legs
as they move miserably
trying to find something to eat.
Not when the affluent nations throw away tons
of uneaten food every day.

No one should ever die of hunger
on this planet abounding with luscious edible foods!

Not one child! Not one mother! Not one grandfather!
Not millions who remain trapped
inside invisible prisons because of the lack of food.
The cells are locked, and the hours press agonizingly
upon the prisoners!

Bring them food!
Liberate them from their prisons!
Show them the compassion of an altruistic fellow human!
​
When one person goes hungry,
we all lose a tiny bit of our strength
and a tiny bit of our dignity
and a tiny bit of our identity
as children of the sacred Lord of Life!
Picture
Neal Grace has traveled the world on an adventure of discovery. His poetry portrays the wonders of life, as well as its challenges. He believes the quickest way to freedom and joy is by expanding consciousness and aligning with a greater compassion toward all beings. He lives in San Rafael, California with his beloved wife Jaclyn.

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Poems by Q.R. Quasar

12/19/2024

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Magnum, No. 15: The Eleventh Plague: War
8.15.2024
​

skin diseases slither like snakes along
sharp-chipped cement-block rubble alleyways
skeletal children crumble in the waves
of hunger. bomb blasts blow up kids’ faces:
“eyeless in Gaza.”

Magnum 17: Glazed Eyes in Gaza
8.22.2024

his face drawn tight in classic triangles,
the sharp edges were everyday cubist.
frozen in time on the hospital bed,
mouth open, his shock protruded like bones:
he was starving to death
Picture
Q.R.Quasar is a poet, playwright, novelist & scholar/translator of Arabic & Persian poetry/philosophy (Ph.D., UCLA). Poems/translations in Poetry, Hawaii Review, Al-Arabiyya, Blackbox, etc. Among his 11 books are Buddha Time (Global Scholarly Pubs. [GSP]: gsp-books.org), Ocean of Suns (GSP), Watching the Universe Die (GSP), & Expanse of Green (translated Persian poetry of Sepehry: UNESCO/Kalimat). Awards: 1st Prize, Chicago Poetry Festival; Columbia University Translation Prize, Int'l Scholar of the Year (1998: for Persian translations.). TV/radio readings in Persian/English: Europe, Asia, USA. Live readings: Iran, Russia, China, USA. Founding member, San Francisco Bay Area Poets Coalition. Contact QRQ directly for books.

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Poem by Amanda Conover

12/4/2024

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hunger

I like the hunger best.
how it feels so overpowering,
like the longer I go the more
my body begs for food. I like how
it’s all up to me, whether to feed
this beast or let her wither
into nothingness. how I don’t
even have to try to tune everything
out these days. how I can watch
others eat and feel full. how
happy I get on the scale when
I’m right under the nearest ten.
how I get more compliments
for my control. the restraint,
the dedication, the nights of
battle where I doubt if any of this
is worth it before remembering
I don’t know how to leave, or
maybe just don’t want to.

this poem is inspired by and mimics the form of Ada Limón’s “How to Triumph Like a Girl”
Picture
Amanda Conover frequently discusses ideas related to existentialism and spirituality. She is the poetry editor for Carolina Muse Literary & Arts Magazine and is an MFA alum from Arcadia University. Her poetry has appeared in places such as the lickety~split, Miracle Monacle, and Atlanta Review.

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Poem by Paulina Milewska

12/1/2024

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I Am No Better than They

​Across the room there is a child
Whose eyes could see the potential in me
Hands write the poem of a century
And mouth cheer when they smiled

They could strum a guitar
And gather each person in the room
And the function couldn’t resume
Because the astonishment is bizarre!

They could lend me a pencil when I need
Loan an umbrella when it pelts down
Look the other way to not worry me when they frown
And walk an elder across the street

But instead their eyes drift to the ground
Their ribs show when their hands raise
At times they can’t mumble a phrase
And they get a second lunch despite it being browned

And while I spend hours learning the flute
Stare at my screen thinking of a next line
Make it everyone's problem when im not fine
And discard a stale, dull and uninspiring fruit

I still have a better chance than them
Not because of talent or virtue
But because of privilege and luck too
So is it really an eye for an eye and a gem for a gem?

They must focus on not what is to come
But a meal ahead
Only then, for a moment, will they be relieved of the dread
As they taste the pleasantness of what life can become
BIO: Paulina is a freshman at the Brooklyn Latin School in NYC. Here, she hopes to continue unraveling her known hobbies and passions of writing and theatre, as well as attempt to add new interests to that list such as a variety of sports and public speaking. She has grown up fortunate enough to not have to feel worry about food on the table, and believes that feeling is a basic human right. She believes that whether or not you can meet the basic nutritional needs of your body directly correlates to and impacts all other aspects of your life.
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Poem by Chip Williford

12/1/2024

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Left Blank

Empty plates
Lines the table

No Crumbs
to gather

Neither
None
or
Not Enough
For everyone
Doesn’t seem right

Seemingly,
Out of nowhere
Appeared mom
From out of sight

Filling a small spoon
A sprinkle of crumbs

We’ll share

And sleep
well
tonight
Picture
Chip Williford - Director and Co-host of Poetry Street is a prose, poetry, and short story writer, published in several publications. He is a passionate equal rights advocate and activist for peace and human rights, filmmaker, documentarian, family historian, good listener, and relatable
storyteller.

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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