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

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

Poem by Tony Treanor

2/25/2021

0 Comments

 
An Gorta Mór (The Great Hunger)
Ireland
1845 - 1850
I

Ireland. The aching. Stomach tight, skin taut, stretched  across poking ribs.
Mo dhia,prataí ar maidin agus prataí ar nóin mar a duirt an file -My God, potatoes in the morning and potatoes in the evening,-as the poet said-
A hot clammy Summer. Potatoes! Lifegiver! dragged from the earth with fevered hands,
dirt scared nails, scratching ,digging the mulched black thing, cloying to the touch, from the earth. A fouled death stench, from what had been a potato.
A sábhála Dia orainn!- God save us!-Níl aon rud eile againn! -We have nothing else!

The Land bereft of it's nourishing harvest; potatoes. Even along the coast, the boats are no more, in the cities if you have the money for the inflated prices at the food markets,, and islands where there is fish, there is some salvation, if you have the strength and skill to catch them. If you have a currach to set sail to find them, or the ragged groups of women and girls,

chipping reluctant shellfish from the sea drenched rocks,
or ,eating raw seaweed  to ease the knawing need, their guant frames poisoned,
leading to the agony of death without hope. Cad a Déanfaimid anois?- What will we do now?
The cravings, walking barefoot, to the Landlord's House, the smell of cooking from his kitchen. Turned away by his bailiffs with masks about their faces, to hide the stench of human despair.
Food. Scenting like hunting dogs, the imagined taste on the air, like ragged unseeing things,
they stagger across moor and heath. The mountain wind, cutting through to the bone,

II

the chill of streams crossed numbing their bloodied bare feet,
staring unseeing, with grass-juiced mouths, the final act of  despair and madness,
dripping from slack jawed lips.
Dying in heaving gasps, amidst a mountained landscape,
falling to emerald beauty to the quiet of field and valley.

The last sight and sound they see, lying face up, in  a ditch, or on the side of the road, watching with the indifference of the dying, the slow moving gunmetal clouds pasted across a cold sky, reflected in their eyes.
A raven hovering, feathering a winged beat
for the approach of endless night. A lonely cry on the air, notes their passing.
A lonely place to die, by the roadside, a light breeze, bending blade of grass and petalled flower, fingers clawing the earth in a final rigor of agony,
before blessed death takes them.
An Gorta Mór: 1845-1850

Click on the file to listen to Tony read the poem:
tony_treanor_recording.mp3
File Size: 9598 kb
File Type: mp3
Download File

Picture
Tony Treanor is an Irishman living in Limerick on the Mid-West coast of Ireland. He has enjoyed writing and reading poetry  all his life.

0 Comments

Poem by Laura Mulcahy

2/16/2021

0 Comments

 
Laura Mulcahy, Irish Singer and Poet, presents her moving song/poem, Sunken Cemetery, 1849, about emigration caused by the Irish Famine. 
​Several musicians and poets join her in this tribute.   
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ypRiYttVGE&feature=emb_logo
0 Comments

    Authors

    You can find poets' names under Categories

    Archives

    February 2022
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    February 2021
    September 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    February 2020
    November 2019
    August 2019
    June 2019

    Poets

    All
    Abha Das Sarma
    Betty Makula
    Brenda Gunn
    Brian Tawanda Aka Towandah Ryan
    Chandra Gurung
    Denish Moorthy
    Doreena Jennings
    Edward Kabali
    Fin Hall
    Fizza Abbas
    Ger Duffy
    Guy Chambers
    Imtiaj Alom
    International Poetry
    Jose Padua
    Josephine LoRe
    Katiba Muhammed
    Kelly Van Nelson
    Laura Mulcahy
    Martin Chivaku
    Patience Gumbo
    Poems By JSI Team Members
    Rashid Hussain
    Rena Fleming
    Richard Stephenson
    Sharmila Pokharel
    Takudzwa Chikepe
    Tony Treanor
    Zolisa Gumede

    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