Broken Circles Hunger Project
February 14, 2012
Valentine’s Day – a day for love, roses, chocolate, and for the well-versed: poetry. Last month I attended the Broken Circles Hunger Project, a poetry fundraiser to benefit Food Gatherers. The event was sponsored by Cave Moon Press and Springfed Arts and featured poetry, songs and readings from Keith Taylor, Joy Gaines-Friedler, Jeff Kass, francine j. harris, John D. Lamb, Lynn DeTurk and students from the Neutral Zone.
With permission from Keith Taylor and Sam Kass, we are happy to share two of our favorites that were read that evening.
IF YOU KNOW THAT MAN
I don’t even remember his name,
only that he gave me a grapefruit one winter night thirty years ago.
I was broke and hungry. I didn’t know
when I’d eat, and he gave me that fruit,
all juice and pulp, tasting of an earth
I’d never seen. If you know the man,
tell him I turned out fat and happy.
- Keith Taylor, Marginalia for a Natural History, New York, New York: Black Lawrence Press
Poet and writer Keith Taylor coordinates the undergraduate program in creative writing at the University of Michigan, directs the Bear River Writer’s Conference, and is the poetry editor for Michigan Quarterly Review.
When I wake up
there’s sunshine and the skies sparkle,
a chill mist hangs in the air,
but I know there’s someone somewhere crying,
someone somewhere soaking,
someone somewhere hating this rain.
You have nowhere to go
but the bakery’s awning.
I can’t understand why people
don’t give you their hearts.
That’s why I dropped five dollars
I earned into the donation box,
why I can’t sleep after seeing
sleeping bags along the road.
You shouldn’t be living the life
of a raccoon, no. A few days ago
I saw a boy, his mother asking for change,
and I want to ask for change too,
a change in how we treat people
begging for money, scavenging for food,
people with nowhere to go
when it rains.
-Sam Kass, 5th Grade, Ann Arbor Schools
In total, the Broken Circles Hunger Project gathered 121 pounds of food and $3,147 – the equivalent of more than 9,500 meals for individuals and families in need in Washtenaw County. Thank you to all involved and a Happy Valentine’s Day to all!
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