Poetry X Hunger
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Poem by Dan Bissonnette

9/23/2022

3 Comments

 
Hunger

Never have I needed,
to worry about food.
I always find a nibble,
when I am in the mood.

We have turkey at Thanksgiving
and again on Christmas Day.
I give it not a second thought,
this simply is our way.

My tummy sometimes grumbles,
but I quickly find a fix.
I grab some bread and butter
and add things to the mix.

I’ve never been so hungry,
that I’d eat most anything.
I am amongst the lucky ones,
I’ve never felt the sting.

When I was just a youngster,
of the hungry I knew not.
Of people living on the street,
I gave no second thought.

When I reached my teenage years,
I saw them while downtown.
Arm stretched out and begging,
on their face the saddest frown.

That frown it would turn upright,
when a quarter I would give.
They knew that with a few more,
they’d find a place to live.

A humble place to hang their hat
and food to fill their gut.
If even for a short time,
they have escaped their rut.

​Now food banks for the many,
soup kitchens left and right.
People sharing...people caring,
to relieve the hunger’s might.
Picture
I hail from North Bay, Ontario, Canada. I first started writing poems somewhat seriously shortly after Covid hit in 2020. I discovered this site when a friend of mine posted one of his poems here. His name is Don Hamaliuk.

3 Comments

Poem by Waqas Rabbani

9/14/2022

4 Comments

 
Aimless 

I feel like my back is breaking
cracking like a mountain
whacked by a comet
slapped with lightning
my veins are fire

thoughts running a mile a minute
like a suicidal freight train
piloted by an AI
that can't figure out the trolley problem
that shreds all my darlings
with its wheels of progress
leaving my demons alive

being gnawed from the inside out
seeing everything I held sacred
lost, torn, broken or scattered to the wind
I'm aimless

Jobless, homeless, penniless
starving for food, purpose and affection equally
not getting anything
staring at my empty plate, nibbling on empty promises
with broken teeth
my shattered hopes and dreams
my knife and fork
bent and broken
as useless and aimless as me…

where do I go from here
in these torn shoes and blistered feet
I hear a messiah is giving a sermon on a mountain
in a strange land
I'll close my eyes and send my ghost over
perhaps in my next life, I'll have a purpose then
and be able to feed my heart, my stomach and my soul
and thrive

I just hope the earth isn't salted and barren
where my ghost takes seed
for an aimless eternity is better
than an aimless life to me.
Picture
Waqas Rabbani is a former Content Head at an advertising agency. He is a geek and loves all things techy. His work has appeared on many platforms, including New London Writers, Nation, Eye On Life Magazine, Green Ink Poetry, Clay Literary and NayaDaur.

4 Comments

Poem by Joseph Caperna

9/12/2022

7 Comments

 
2022

A piece of steak,
          a prostitute, the penthouse
Dystopia, polluted planet, hunger
Soylent green is people.
Feeding at its most macabre

Click to hear the poet read the poem.
Picture
I am a physician in San Diego, CA, spent my career dedicated to HIV. To bring compassion and caring, and listening into my medical practice, I am using poetry with my patients and their families. I have traveled over 60 years to 6 contients. These experiences inspire prose and poetry that I am starting to submit to publish.

7 Comments

Poem by Argos MacCallum

9/7/2022

1 Comment

 
Yemen Girl

young girl with a thousand names
stands in the doorways of Yemen
long skirt billows in the breeze

young girl stands in the jaws
of war and hunger
no rain but bombs fall from the sky

she clutches her headscarf
confronts the camera level-eyed
one eye steeled in the pugnacity of life
the other convulsed in horror

the roofs fall on the uncles
the walls crash onto cribs
the ground erupts in blisters
under the shrapnel sky

the young girl is our grandmothers
hands past and future clasped
together in a star-lit continuum
a long procession of endurance

​loss and love
Picture
Argos MacCallum has published two chapbooks of poetry-- She Loved Gravity and Would Fall Down Exquisitely Anywhere (Synergetic Press, 1987), and Sleeping Woman Mountain (Kelsay Books, 2022). His poems have appeared in Malpais Review, :Lummox Anthology, and PoetryXHunger. He lives in Santa Fe, NM.

1 Comment

    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

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    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
  • 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