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Poem by Bhikshuni Weisbrot

5/14/2022

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Meditation on Hunger

So this was our harvest. A single tomato from two vines.
Some said there was too much sun or too much rain, but we
got what we got. Be grateful, I said, with wisdom that came
from thinking about hunger for many days and images and
words that had shattered my imagination;

at 12, an old man rummaging through the trash for food on
my first field trip to the UN; at 14, kwashiorkor - the pot bellies
and slatted ribs of Biafran children and forever the ghost faces
of the newly liberated from the concentration camp Dachau.

Who feeds the Heaven-dreams of the hungry?

We will have a ceremony my friend said, so we cut the fruit in
equal parts, which I salted and held on my tongue as she began
the Shehecheyanu - Baruch ata Adonai - singsonging to the finish.
Then we clinked our glasses and toasted L’Chaim! To Life!

My Master once gave these instructions:
“Buy this girl some food”, he said on my birthday.
It was his affection, but now I’m thinking
“When was my famine?” When had it begun for each of us?
an insatiable hunger, an unquenchable thirst.

My cat comes to the door after a heavy rain. As long as she
is with me I will feed her. Soon it will be time to put on my sari
(perhaps the one with butterflies) and continue the nurturing task
of feeding others.

Let me not forget this benediction,
this prayer for plentitude,
Annam Brahma
Food is God.
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​Bhikshuni Weisbrot is the President of the UNSRC Society of Writers. She is the editor, along with Elizabeth Lara and Darrel Alejandro Holnes, of "Happiness, The Delight-Tree", An Anthology of Contemporary International Poetry. 

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Poem by Richard Stukey

5/14/2022

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BOGEY

He is the maestro of the misbegotten
don of the destitute
headliner for the homeless.
Spring, summer, autumn, and winter
Bogey sits on the bench of an outstretched folding table
head hung down, eyes clinging to the cement floor
of one of two adjacent pavilions,
his hands stuffed into the pockets
of his stained and faded evergreen hoodie.

In spring, summer, autumn
—but never winter--
pretty women in pastel-colored exercise outfits
park their gleaming Subarus, SUVs, and Mercedes
along a tree-lined park drive
and hurry over to the pavilion
next to the one where Bogey sits.
They wave their long arms like tulip stems
to the rhythms of their leader.
“One…two…three…come on, ladies!
Four…five…six
You’re almost there!”

Bogey, frozen on the bench
in his open-air theater wing,
watches them curiously as he waits
for Squire the squirrel to leap onto the table
and feast on the peanuts that Bogey has lined up
for him like tiny communion cups.

Soon, as he does most mornings,
a gray-haired man with a Labrador retriever
will sit down beside Bogey and talk to him
in hushed but intense tones,
like a theater director
urging a Shakespearean actor not to be afraid,
but simply
to be.

-end-

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Richard Stukey is a freelance writer who also writes fiction, poetry, and songs. His articles and columns have appeared in many publications, including the (North Jersey) Record, the Washington Examiner, and the Boston Globe. He grew up in Teaneck Jersey, and lives in the Shenandoah Valley of West Virginia.

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Poem by Ryan Gibbs

5/14/2022

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Click to listen to the poet read the poem:
Food Shortage

corralled by crates
till inside number
reaches fifty
signal given
carts driven
on great race
to gather up
troves in bulk
new lineup
new panic
did I purchase enough?
return tomorrow
to replenished shelves

*first published in March 2020: A COVID-19 Anthology (2020) by 845 Press.
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Ryan Gibbs is an English professor who lives in London, Canada. His over forty poems have appeared in journals and anthologies in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Malta, and Saint Pierre and Miquelon. His children’s poetry has been included in the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness. Twitter: @RyanGibbsWriter

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Poem by David Bartlett

5/14/2022

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Click to listen to the poet read the poem:
Comes a time…

A subliminal nibbling,
a foreboding:
             famines we have seen
             ​are how we may be.
No need,
there is food for all.
Turn the tide of history,
             settle for less,
             share the largesse.

Pick your story:
             Stone Soup,
             the loaves and fish,
             today’s farmers with extra hay
                          sending it to those without.

Emulate that spirit:
             stock the foodbank shelves,
             protest/prevent the desiccation of farmland,
                          do what you can to stop
                                       the melting of glaciers
                                                    which feed our rivers.

The revolution has to be generous.
Care for each other.
Give, share
             food, resources, knowledge.

​We are – all are – one with the Earth
no matter how far separate we may seem.
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"I’ve been a writer all my life while moving through a career path that included printing, proof-reading, composing room work, reporting, eventually editing and publishing my own newspaper, teaching, and union work. I’ve written non-fiction, fiction, poetry, and songs."

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Poem by Bartholomew Barker

5/14/2022

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Click to listen to the poet read the poem:
A Southern Farmers Market

Summer sun freckles your shoulders
I follow your cotton dress
Between stalls carrying canvas bags
Soon overflowing with booty
From our morning expedition

Cauliflower white yellow
And unbelievably purple
Fondled by your whisper long fingers
While choosing the ideal
Head for greedy consumption

Greens mustard collard turnip
Fibrous deep verdant
Leaves that will shrivel
To potent nutrition
With vinegar and fatback

​The canvas cornucopia
Spills across our kitchen table
You prepare a lunch
Sharpened with flavors
Purchased mere minutes ago

We eat on the deck
Ignore air conditioning
Feed each other blueberries
With our lips reveling
in primal nature
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Bartholomew Barker is an organizer of Living Poetry, a collection of poets in North Carolina. Born and raised in Ohio, studied in Chicago, he worked in Connecticut for nearly twenty years before moving to Hillsborough where he makes money as a computer programmer to fund his poetry habit.
www.bartbarkerpoet.com

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    About

    The poems that follow are powerful evidence that Poetry Speaks Back to Hunger!

    They were submitted to the 2021 World Food Day Special Call for Poems from North American Poets.  Several of these poems will be showcased in the coming weeks by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the Capital Area Food Bank.  

    Thanks to poets Josephine LoRe (Alberta, Canada), Brian Donnell James (Virginia, USA) and Martiza Rivera (Maryland, USA) for helping to assess the poems.  Thanks also to Rebecca Roach for donating nearly 1200 tree seedlings on behalf of the poets who submitted work.  And, a big thanks to poet Aaron R who helped to administer the Special Call. ​

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    Poets

    All
    Anna Mioduchowska
    Anna Yin
    Antoni Ooto
    Aressa Williams
    Argos MacCallum
    Bartholomew Barker
    Bhikshuni Weisbrot
    Brenda Gunn
    Brittany Sabatino
    Buffy Aakaash
    Cindy M. Buhl
    Cleveland Wall
    Dan Bissonnette
    David Bartlett
    David Mook
    Diane Sahms-Guarnieri
    Diane Wilbon Parks
    Dianna L. Grayer
    Doris Diosa Davenport
    Eileen Trauth
    Eldon Winston
    Elijah Pringle
    Elizabeth Black
    Ellen Bass
    Faris Ahmed
    Gavin Barrett
    Grace Cavalieri
    Heather Meloche
    Heidi Mordhorst
    Henry Farkas
    Henry Victor
    Jamie Brown
    Janet Cannon
    Joan McNerney
    John Guzlowski
    John L. Dutton II
    Joseph Caperna
    Joyce Williams Graves
    Justin Johnson
    Keith Inman
    Laurel Chambers
    Lauren Camp
    Linda Fischer
    Linda Nemec Foster
    Linda Pastan
    Linda Wolfe
    Lori Heninger
    Margaret Patricia Eaton
    Marilyn Fishman
    Mark Fishbein
    Megha Sood
    Milton Carp
    Molly Ponkevich Burack
    Nityananda Khanal
    Patricia Trentacoste
    Patsy Asuncion
    Rg Cantalupo
    Richard Stukey
    Rosemary Klein
    Ryan Gibbs
    Sally Zakariya
    Sandra Rivers-Gill
    Serena Agusto-Cox
    Shan Overton
    Sharon Olson
    Sistah Joy
    Stewart Acuff
    Susan McMaster
    Sylvia Dianne Beverly Aka Ladi Di
    Teresa Méndez-Quigley
    Theresa Tull McGinnis
    Thomas Schuelke
    Waqas Rabbani
    Willeena Booker
    Wynne Morrison

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  • Home
  • Art Auction to Alleviate Hunger
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    • World Food Day Poetry Competition >
      • 2021
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      • 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