Can someone please help me explicate the poem Hunger in New York City?

Question

I would appreciate any type of help, thank you

hunger in new york city
simon ortiz

Hunger crawls into you
from somewhere out of your muscles
or the concrete or the land
or the wind pushing you.

it comes to you, asking
for food, words, wisdom, young memeories
of places you ate at, drank cold spring water, or held somebody's hand,
or home of the gentle, slow dances,
the songs, the strong gods, the world
you know.

that is, hunger searches you out.
it always asks you,
how are you, son? where are you?
have you eaten well?
have you done what you as a person
of our people is supposed to do?

and the concrete of this city,
the oily wind, the blazing windows,
the shrieks of automation cannot,
truly cannot, answer for that hunger
although i have hungered, truthfull and honestly, for them
to feed myself with

so i sang to myself quietly:
i am feeding myself
with the humble presence
of all around me;
i am feeding myself
wiht your soul, my mother earth;
make me cool and humble.
bless me.

Answer 1

Here are a couple of things to consider that will hopefully help you work through the poem:

(1) How does the poem's speaker seem to define "hunger"? What is it like? Is it simply the desire for food--or something more?

(2) What kinds of things does the speaker hunger for? To what extent is the speaker's hunger satisfied? How do we know?

(3) How might the poem's title be significant? How is it important that the speaker is specifically talking about "Hunger in New York"?

The other thing you can do which will help a lot is to read the poem out loud a few times. Often, a poem which seems impenetrable on paper becomes a lot clearer when read aloud (because you're processing the information differently: hearing instead of reading).

Good luck!

Answer 2

Hunger means an urge to go beyond the speculation of what to expect in life life since life arouses drive from within the simple act of living. The poem disregards dwelling or desiring
(that is, past and present). It simply feeds from the present. I love the last two verses.

Answer 3

I think Jeffery Dalmer said it best, in that if I eat my neighbor before he eats me I will be the fat one. Now your case is a little different, but eating your neighbors dog is not nice ether. You can buy her another dog but you will just get to jonesing for it and eat it also. If you overcome your sexual lust for animals you may be able to return to a normal homosexual life, just be care full what you bite off.