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Poem by Aressa Williams

12/5/2021

2 Comments

 
Hunger Speaks

Hunger.
Call my name, people cringe.
A dark reputation precedes me.
Emptiness, discomfort, longing, potential death
leave a bad taste in the mouth.

I am misunderstood.
I am a signal, reminder, alert.
“Hey, your body needs food.”
My job is to warn not harm.

If I linger too long, 
the body, mind, spirit suffers.
If I linger too, too long,
the human vessel perishes.  

Still, I have hope.
Imagine healthy meals on every table.
Imagine well fed children thriving in the classroom.
Imagine abundant food sources shared worldwide. 

But for now,
Say Hunger, people cringe.
All you can eat, people binge.
Wasted food could feed many. 
I wish my name meant plenty.


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Aressa V. Williams, a retired DC Public School teacher and an Assistant Professor of English retiree, is also a writing consultant and poet. The aspiring message-maker wrote her first book of poems to earn a Girl Scout badge for Creative Writing. Aressa’s self-published works are Soft Shadows, The Penny Finder, and Pancakes & Chocolate Milk.  The word-weaver believes poems are word snapshots. She is the proud mother of Aaron Coley and the grateful grandmother of Aressa Coley.


2 Comments
Joy Jones
12/6/2021 11:51:00 am

Your name does mean plenty!

Reply
Martha Harrison
12/6/2021 09:30:04 pm

I like your work very much.

Reply



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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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  • 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