Poetry X Hunger
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Hunger is a worldwide scourge. 
​This section includes poems recently written by poets from
​around the world.   

Poem by Laura Grevel

1/23/2025

6 Comments

 
                                           The Lonely Side

                                                                 My name is Homeless
                                                                 I carry myself in this bag
                                                                 On this lonely side of the street

I walk down the street on my feet
I smell their fear when we meet

I look down at shoes not at eyes
I hear the repulse in their sighs

I want for the meat of their teeth
I feel the quick cringe just beneath

I thirst for the taste of their wheat
I sink with their stare at my need

I ache with the need to entreat
I cry at the heat of defeat

I live the long nights of that shame
I’m sore with the fingers of blame

I know that they would me delete
I walk down the street on my feet

                                                                 On this lonely side of the street
                                                                 I carry myself in this bag
                                                                 ​My name is Homeless

Click to hear the poet read the poem.


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From the USA, Laura Grevel lives in Europe. She is a performance poet, fiction writer and blogger. Her writings have been published widely. Laura often reads at international online literary events.
6 Comments

Poems by Vincent Stevenson

1/9/2025

0 Comments

 
Food Bank

Another working day,
Twelve hours with the elderly,
Waiting for my pay,
Loving family tenderly.

Nothing to report but,
Dreading the journey home,
Claiming income support,
No credit on my phone.

Another payday loan,
Council flat is dank,
In shadow seeds are sown,
Waiting at the food bank.

Britain Needs Gurdwaras

There are 300 Gurdwaras in the UK,
A little-known statistic,
If you’re hungry, they will feed you,
This gift of community ensures survival,
Filling hearts and bellies.
All ages, all creeds, all needs, good deeds,
No questions asked, just humanity with a smile,
Our flesh and blood are the same, just different,
A first world country, leaning on community efforts,
Dedicated volunteers lift spirits,
When there’s nowhere else to go,
What happened to social mobility?
Rising beyond origins, carving success?
A lost term among hidden beneficiaries,
As teenagers we talked of eradicating child poverty,
Eradicating world hunger, yet here we stand,
Poverty and hunger in a first world country.
Politicians shrug shoulders – let’s set up a working group,
A Royal Commission to report back in five years,
Some subjects are too big for one lifetime and a million politicians,
There’s enough food for us all, you know, not just the few.
Gurdwaras show society the errors of its ways,
They offer true leadership, true ambition, true humanitarian love.

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Born in Manchester, England, Vince first started writing poetry influenced by the 'punk' poet, John Cooper Clarke in the mid-1980s. Since then he has travelled extensively and enjoys writing about both beautiful and disturbing things. Coming from a tough background, Vince recognises the difficulties of ordinary people. He works as a trainer helping people overcome the fear of public speaking.

0 Comments

Poem by Mike Douse

1/7/2025

0 Comments

 
Loaves and Lilies
​
There is this Chinese proverb stating that, when you have only
Two pennies left in the world, you should buy a loaf of bread
With one and a lily with the other. Which is a good illustration
Of an admirable message – feeding not only the stomach but
Also the soul… man cannot live by bread alone… those sorts of
Sentiments. But there is now a higher truth that involves altruism
And our common humanity: spend one of your pence on a loaf
For yourself and the other on a loaf for a faraway fellow human
Who is desperately hungry. Involving a lack of lily, conceivably
Compensated for by my sense of virtuousness – of having done
The ‘right thing’. But here, for me at any rate, there is a bit of a
Problem. Call me greedy or selfish if you must but I favour the
Lily before me to the temporarily satiated individual, unknown to
And distant from me, noble though my gesture might have been.
So, what to do? Possibly fourteen of us should share the lily in
Question between us and dispatch a baker’s dozen loaves to a
Zone of famine – and there are multitudes of those. But, here
Again, that doesn’t work for me: I want my lily, not a share in a
Lily but sole ownership thereof. Any other ideas? Well, how about
We clear the fields and we provide the grain and the agricultural
Implements and some fertiliser, thereby enabling those starving
People to produce loaves (possibly alongside lilies) themselves?
Which involves some initial sacrifice on my part (half a loaf is
Better than no bread) but, in a year or two, I would not need to
Go without my lily and my conscience would be clear. What’s
That – the rich landowners have seized the land? The villagers
Have eaten the seeds? There’s no money to fuel the equipment?
The fertiliser fails to meet environmental standards? Let us face
It, there are some questions without answers, some problems
Without solutions. I’ve certainly enjoyed my daily bread but I see
That my lilium convallium has finished flowering. It must now be
Deadheaded, pruned, cut back, and mulched in readiness for the
Year ahead and so I’ve just no time to think further about hunger.

BIO: MIKE DOUSE has worked in education internationally since 1963. His publications include An Enjoyment of Education, One World One School, and numerous journal articles and conference presentations, along with four collections of his poems: Old Ground, Gone to Ground, Grounded and Groundhog Nights. He is living happily ever after in South Wales with his dear wife Patricia.
0 Comments

Poem by Deirdre Hines

1/4/2025

0 Comments

 
The Recipe

may take its name from the country of birth                                                                                             or from the author, but depends on                                                                                                           the right amount of ingredients in                                                                                                             the right order: no higgledy piggledy.                                                                                                      Although tastes have proved as fickle                                                                                                        as simile, the seas dishes sail in                                                                                                                   are groups that rise and fall in frequencies                                                                                              that follow whales feeding in plastic fields.                                                                                              Between the poetry and metaphor,                                                                                                             between our finger and our mouth,                                                                                                              hangs an image of a starving child                                                                                                              above rivers of uneaten flavour.                                                                                                                  The lost recipes of Eden live                                                                                                                     in golden grains of singing wheatfields.

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Deirdre is an award winning playwright and poet. Her first book of poems 'The Language of Coats' was published by New Island Books and includes the poems which won The Listowel Poetry Collection Prize. 'The Mermelf-A Fable for Our Times' was published by Austin and Macauley in April 2024 and is a verse novella for younger readers.

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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