Poem by Thomas Schuelke

HUNGER: A Never Satiated Sonnet
"Batter my heart, three person'd God; for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine and seek to mend."

John Donne (1571? - 1631)
Holy Sonnets, No. XIV

1
How does horrific hunger hurt my every being?
There are three pointed prongs on my dinner fork.
Paper plates are piled sky high with perfect pork.
My ravaged body craves the food my eyes are seeing.

5
My mind's the next fork tine by ignorant hunger enslaved.
A belly bawls for food: a brain calls for food for thought.
For today are brain and breadbasket tied into a knot,
Where each incredible edible of food and knowledge is craved.
The soul needs to be nourished as body and brain.

10
​Food and learning go together like a hand that's gloved.
A spirit dies from the horrible hunger of being unloved.
In life, the body, the mind and the soul are links in a chain.
Of all these three, which is for me the worst?
'Tis my body dying from the pangs of hunger and thirst.

Thomas Schuelke was an active member of the Parkland Poets collective in Alberta, Canada.  A writer of poems, plays, essays, short stories and novels as well as a visual artist and a composer of music, Thomas was a prolific creative and active member of the Canadian artistic scene.   He passed away in 2024.