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The Hungry Ear: Poems of Food and Drink
Food and in so many ways, a natural pairing, from prayers over bread to street vendor songs. Poetry is said to feed the soul, each poem a delicious morsel. When read aloud, the best poems provide a particular joy for the mouth. Poems about food make these satisfactions explicit and complete. Of course, pages can and have been filled about food's elemental pleasures. And we all know food is more than it's identity and culture. Our days are marked by meals; our seasons are marked by celebrations. We plant in spring; harvest in fall. We labor over hot stoves; we treat ourselves to special meals out. Food is nurture; it's comfort; it's reward. While some of the poems here are explicitly about the food the blackberries, the butter, the barbecue--all are evocative of the experience of eating. Many of the poems are also about the everything else that accompanies the memories, the company, even the politics. Kevin Young, distinguished poet, editor of this year's Best American Poetry , uses the lens of food - and his impeccable taste - to bring us some of the best poems, classic and current, period. Poets
Elizabeth Alexander, Elizabeth Bishop, Billy Collins, Mark Doty, Robert Frost, Allen Ginsberg, Louise Gluck, Seamus Heaney, Tony Hoagland, Langston Hughes, Galway Kinnell, Frank O'Hara, Sharon Olds, Mary Oliver, Adrienne Rich, Theodore Roethke, Matthew Rohrer, Charles Simic, Tracy K. Smith, Gertrude Stein, Wallace Stevens, Mark Strand, Kevin Young
Elizabeth Alexander, Elizabeth Bishop, Billy Collins, Mark Doty, Robert Frost, Allen Ginsberg, Louise Gluck, Seamus Heaney, Tony Hoagland, Langston Hughes, Galway Kinnell, Frank O'Hara, Sharon Olds, Mary Oliver, Adrienne Rich, Theodore Roethke, Matthew Rohrer, Charles Simic, Tracy K. Smith, Gertrude Stein, Wallace Stevens, Mark Strand, Kevin Young
336 pages, Hardcover
First published October 16, 2012
23 people are currently reading
569 people want to read
About the author
Kevin Young
87 books373 followersKevin Young is an American poet heavily influenced by the poet Langston Hughes and the art of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Young graduated from Harvard College in 1992, was a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University (1992-1994), and received his MFA from Brown University. While in Boston and Providence, he was part of the African-American poetry group, The Dark Room Collective.
Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, Young is the author of Most Way Home, To Repel Ghosts, Jelly Roll, Black Maria, For The Confederate Dead, Dear Darkness, and editor of Giant Steps: The New Generation of African American Writers; Blues Poems; Jazz Poems and John Berryman's Selected Poems.
His Black Cat Blues, originally published in The Virginia Quarterly Review, was included in The Best American Poetry 2005. Young's poetry has appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry Magazine, The Paris Review, Ploughshares, and other literary magazines. In 2007, he served as guest editor for an issue of Ploughshares. He has written on art and artists for museums in Los Angeles and Minneapolis.
His 2003 book of poems Jelly Roll was a finalist for the National Book Award.
After stints at the University of Georgia and Indiana University, Young now teaches writing at Emory University, where he is the Atticus Haygood Professor of English and Creative Writing, as well as the curator of the Raymond Danowski Poetry Library, a large collection of first and rare editions of poetry in English.
Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, Young is the author of Most Way Home, To Repel Ghosts, Jelly Roll, Black Maria, For The Confederate Dead, Dear Darkness, and editor of Giant Steps: The New Generation of African American Writers; Blues Poems; Jazz Poems and John Berryman's Selected Poems.
His Black Cat Blues, originally published in The Virginia Quarterly Review, was included in The Best American Poetry 2005. Young's poetry has appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry Magazine, The Paris Review, Ploughshares, and other literary magazines. In 2007, he served as guest editor for an issue of Ploughshares. He has written on art and artists for museums in Los Angeles and Minneapolis.
His 2003 book of poems Jelly Roll was a finalist for the National Book Award.
After stints at the University of Georgia and Indiana University, Young now teaches writing at Emory University, where he is the Atticus Haygood Professor of English and Creative Writing, as well as the curator of the Raymond Danowski Poetry Library, a large collection of first and rare editions of poetry in English.
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October 10, 2018Great, now I’m horny for blackberries.
September 27, 2017
1) This book revived my interest in reading poetry
2) It also brought me closer to an old friend. He used to be quite the chef, and I mailed him a poem I enjoyed.
3) There are tons of poems on berries, which inevitably remind me of berry picking, biking, and lazy summers with jam and toast.
4) It features one of my all time favorite poems - Supermarket in California by Allen Ginsberg.
5) All poems use food as a metaphor.
What's not to love?
2) It also brought me closer to an old friend. He used to be quite the chef, and I mailed him a poem I enjoyed.
3) There are tons of poems on berries, which inevitably remind me of berry picking, biking, and lazy summers with jam and toast.
4) It features one of my all time favorite poems - Supermarket in California by Allen Ginsberg.
5) All poems use food as a metaphor.
What's not to love?
October 14, 2014
Great collection full of great poets! I read it and I'm still hungry for more...poetry!
February 8, 2018
One of the best poetry anthologies I’ve read. Organized carefully like a cookbook. Many different flavors of writing that when mixed make the perfect dish.
March 2, 2017
Years ago I read a self-indulgent love poem to wine, a sassy, elegant thing that I can only explain by saying it could have been written by Oscar Wilde. When I saw the title “Poems of Food & Drink” I thought back to that poem. I thought of when people actually say "food and drink,” usually in the context of sumptuous feasts, relished gluttony, and delight in simple pleasures. Then I skimmed through it and saw an earthy book with poems about blackberries and sections about harvests. So I expected this to be a hedonistic book, some fun, lighthearted poems to read in the mix of my other poetry collections of a heavier, more somber nature.
I should have known better. It's not that I was wrong. You can find all that here. But I hadn't given enough thought to the depth one can find in poems about food, the things it can mean to people, or the ways it can be used as a metaphor. I hadn't considered how powerful food can be.*
[*Not that lighthearted, playful poems are necessarily of lower quality or less deserving of respect than darker, more serious ones, but a) I just wasn’t expecting that, and b) I find the diversity of tone in this collection gives it a little something extra.]
While skimming I saw “Ode to Gumbo” and knew I had to have it. My father taught me how to make gumbo when I was younger and it is a wondrous thing. I saw "Ode to Okra," with the line “mumbo jumbo pot full of gumbo” and giggled and had to buy it. But those aren't silly poems. Ode to Gumbo is written by a man whose father also taught him to make gumbo, whose father has died, and now he turns to the process of making gumbo as a connection to him and metaphor for his grief. (Obviously got me right in the feels.)
It's hard to rate poetry collections, for obvious reasons of diversity. But I love reading collections. There's something wonderful about seeing such a wide range of perspectives and takes on a thing spread out before you, side by side. This book flows in connections from one to another, moving through themes that (don't let the section titles deceive you) are based on more than just food type. It's full of wonderful lines and work by brilliant poets of different eras, styles, focuses, genders, races, places, and economic backgrounds.
All this to say: I consumed this book and enjoyed it thoroughly.
I should have known better. It's not that I was wrong. You can find all that here. But I hadn't given enough thought to the depth one can find in poems about food, the things it can mean to people, or the ways it can be used as a metaphor. I hadn't considered how powerful food can be.*
[*Not that lighthearted, playful poems are necessarily of lower quality or less deserving of respect than darker, more serious ones, but a) I just wasn’t expecting that, and b) I find the diversity of tone in this collection gives it a little something extra.]
While skimming I saw “Ode to Gumbo” and knew I had to have it. My father taught me how to make gumbo when I was younger and it is a wondrous thing. I saw "Ode to Okra," with the line “mumbo jumbo pot full of gumbo” and giggled and had to buy it. But those aren't silly poems. Ode to Gumbo is written by a man whose father also taught him to make gumbo, whose father has died, and now he turns to the process of making gumbo as a connection to him and metaphor for his grief. (Obviously got me right in the feels.)
It's hard to rate poetry collections, for obvious reasons of diversity. But I love reading collections. There's something wonderful about seeing such a wide range of perspectives and takes on a thing spread out before you, side by side. This book flows in connections from one to another, moving through themes that (don't let the section titles deceive you) are based on more than just food type. It's full of wonderful lines and work by brilliant poets of different eras, styles, focuses, genders, races, places, and economic backgrounds.
All this to say: I consumed this book and enjoyed it thoroughly.
March 7, 2014
It was okay. Many of the poems are well known. There are a few that I really like, but many more that left me feeling annoyed. There are so many poems here that have nothing to do with food or drink. Just because a poem has the word "table" in it does not mean it's about food. The Introduction by Young is rambling and awkward, in need of an editor.
November 24, 2016
A fun collection. When making my list of poems that stood out (I usually do this when reading anthologies), I came up with less than 10, which surprised me. I think this was because I wanted something in particular - if only Pablo Neruda had written a poem for every vegetable and fruit! I guess what I'm saying is, when it comes to food poetry, Neruda is so delicious, everyone else lacks flavour.
Fun, nonetheless.
A sample poem.
Fall
The wild cherries ripen, black and fat,
Paradisal fruits that taste of no man's sweat.
Reach up, pull down the laden branch, and eat;
When you have learned their bitterness, they taste sweet.
Wendell Berry
Fun, nonetheless.
A sample poem.
Fall
The wild cherries ripen, black and fat,
Paradisal fruits that taste of no man's sweat.
Reach up, pull down the laden branch, and eat;
When you have learned their bitterness, they taste sweet.
Wendell Berry
June 28, 2020
A well-curated poetry collection on a worthy topic. Regardless of your taste -- both in poetry and food -- you'll discover several poems that will make you want to find more by their author.
Favorites include: "The Gospel of Barbecue," by Honoree Jeffers, "My Days Are Numbered" by Rick Moranis, "A Drinking Song" by Yeats, "Vindaloo in Merthyr Tydfil" by Les Murray, "Hot" by Craig Arnold, "The Latin Deli: An Ars Poetica" by Judith Ortiz Cofer, "Mushrooms" by Sylvia Plath, and Rita Dove's "Grape Sherbet."
Favorites include: "The Gospel of Barbecue," by Honoree Jeffers, "My Days Are Numbered" by Rick Moranis, "A Drinking Song" by Yeats, "Vindaloo in Merthyr Tydfil" by Les Murray, "Hot" by Craig Arnold, "The Latin Deli: An Ars Poetica" by Judith Ortiz Cofer, "Mushrooms" by Sylvia Plath, and Rita Dove's "Grape Sherbet."
May 4, 2018
Some great stuff, esp. by Sylvia Plath:
"Big as the ball of my thumb, and dumb as eyes
Ebon in the hedges, fat
With blue-red juices. These they squander on my fingers."
Love the final poem from Li-Young Lee:
There are days we live
as if death were nowhere
in the background; from joy
to joy to joy; from wing to wing,
from blossom to blossom to
impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.
And also a lot of mediocre stuff that was readily forgotten
"Big as the ball of my thumb, and dumb as eyes
Ebon in the hedges, fat
With blue-red juices. These they squander on my fingers."
Love the final poem from Li-Young Lee:
There are days we live
as if death were nowhere
in the background; from joy
to joy to joy; from wing to wing,
from blossom to blossom to
impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.
And also a lot of mediocre stuff that was readily forgotten
April 2, 2019
Sometimes I am just in the mood to read poetry. To just take a peek at a sliver of life and see a fixed point in time read true with the echoes of the living universe. Yes. I Love poetry, and it kind of grows on you. With a food focused one it will make you hungry and the next time you eat blackberries during summer or a perfect peach or barbecue heat you will savor it longer after reading these finely written poems about food.
March 24, 2018
I like poetry. I like books about food. Turns out I like poetry books about food. Sometimes I felt like it didn’t completely flow, but overall I really enjoyed the way this collection was organized.
February 16, 2019
A thoughtful and generous gesture towards a poetry of ordinary wonder.
April 21, 2019
I may have to buy this book. It is loaded with gems having to do specifically with food, tables, cooking, etc. A few are perfect for when I do recipes to my blog.
September 19, 2020
I love the concept of this collection. Sadly, the content was not very good. Although, the well placed Billy Collins poem doesn't disappoint-- the inevitable guffaws.
October 17, 2020
The Hungry Ear is a collection of 158 poems about food and drink which are bound to excite your senses. My wonderful sister-in-law lent me this book and it did not disappoint!
My five favorite pieces were:
- Oysters by Seamus Heaney
- O Cheese by Donald Hall
- Coffee by Matthew Dickman
- A Drinking Song by W.B. Yeats
- After Apple-Picking by Robert Frost
My five favorite pieces were:
- Oysters by Seamus Heaney
- O Cheese by Donald Hall
- Coffee by Matthew Dickman
- A Drinking Song by W.B. Yeats
- After Apple-Picking by Robert Frost
May 19, 2021
I love poetry in general, but there were few poems in this book that I enjoyed.
May 25, 2021
Favorites:
Ode to Gumbo (Kevin Young) (p 125)
Ode to Salt (Pablo Neruda) (p 198)
Meditation on a Grapefruit (Craig Arnold) (p 281)
Ode to Gumbo (Kevin Young) (p 125)
Ode to Salt (Pablo Neruda) (p 198)
Meditation on a Grapefruit (Craig Arnold) (p 281)
March 5, 2023
This the type of book you read in one sitting on a cold and blustery day. Comfort food that doesn’t make you feel bad for inhaling it.
June 19, 2024
These poems are phenomenal! I love this collection and the theming around it. Kevin Young did an excellent job, and his own poems he included were great, too!
March 14, 2025
This is a cleverly constructed anthology with a great premise. Some of the poems are truly excellent - some are... less so. I found that made an uneven read.
May 6, 2025
edible joy
Wonderful collection of poems that bode darkness and light. Poems that bring memories like fresh picked fruit. A feast of the finest poets.
Wonderful collection of poems that bode darkness and light. Poems that bring memories like fresh picked fruit. A feast of the finest poets.
October 20, 2021
Go buy this book. You need it in your library. This is literally the best poetry collection. You get a great collection of poets and it's all about the magic of the food we eat. Oh my gosh...I just love it.
May 1, 2014
I read this one as a companion to the Everyman's Pocket Poems Eat, Drink, and Be Merry: Poems About Food and Drink, and while that one was good, with a mix of classic and contemporary, The Hungry Ear was even better, in my mind. First, it was a larger collection, and second, the poems were better arranged thematically.
Young does an excellent job introducing the subject, and then placing the poems in a seasonal, meaningful context. The poem he chose to introduce the entire work was also one of my favorites, "Perhaps the World Ends Here" by Joy Harjo. The poem celebrates the significance of the kitchen table, and serves (pun intended) to set the tone for the rest of the collection. Others I enjoyed include:
"Grape Sherbet" by Rita Dove
"Breakfast" by Minnie Bruce Pratt
"Hot" by Craig Arnold
"Blackberry-Picking" by Seamus Heaney (which is one of my all-time favs anyway)
I usually enjoy themed poetry anthologies, but this one is definitely one to savor (pun, again, intended).
Young does an excellent job introducing the subject, and then placing the poems in a seasonal, meaningful context. The poem he chose to introduce the entire work was also one of my favorites, "Perhaps the World Ends Here" by Joy Harjo. The poem celebrates the significance of the kitchen table, and serves (pun intended) to set the tone for the rest of the collection. Others I enjoyed include:
"Grape Sherbet" by Rita Dove
"Breakfast" by Minnie Bruce Pratt
"Hot" by Craig Arnold
"Blackberry-Picking" by Seamus Heaney (which is one of my all-time favs anyway)
I usually enjoy themed poetry anthologies, but this one is definitely one to savor (pun, again, intended).
March 26, 2013
All anthologies of poetry contain better poems, worse poems and lots of poems in between; the differences are usually better explained by the variety of readers than by the variety of verse. Professor Kevin Young of Emory University gathered 158 poems which are, in some way, connected with food, eating or drinking. I would have chosen differently and so would you. He strangely omits anything from Ogden Nash's wonderful collection "Food." He should have included the character Maya's wine speech to the character Miles in the movie "Sideways" by Alexander Payne & Jim Taylor. Dwight Garner of the New York Times called this anthology "the best bathroom book of 2012" and that is where I read it. I'm glad that I did but it contains very few poems to which I will return.
February 10, 2017
A fun collection of mostly accessible poems to sample and savor.
December 12, 2012
Recommended by NPR. While I did not read every single poem in this collection, what I did read I liked a lot. The book's wonderful introduction by poet Kevin Young is a thoughtful summary on the place of food in our lives: birth, death, learning, listening, sharing, in good times and in bad times, etc. The poems themselves are arranged by the seasons and are contributed by famous poets such as Louise Gluck, Mary Oliver, Wendell Berry, and others who are not quite so famous yet have a great voice. Most of the poems use food as the theme, but are really talking about something else, i.e, poverty, racism, grace, living/dying, and more. This is comfort food for the poet's soul.
June 16, 2013
This book made me hungry! Hungry to eat, hungry to read, hungry to write. Kevin Young has put together a wide-ranging, eclectic collection with something for all tastes. His ordering is brilliant, and I could find no slant or bias in style in terms of the poems he picked. They range all over in time, in style, in poet, in place. The common denominator is food, and food is lyrically described, made into metaphor, used as a launching pad into story and memory. I loved nearly every poem, and there were 300 pages of them. How delightful to end with Li-Young Lee.
An exquisite, delicious read. Bravo.
An exquisite, delicious read. Bravo.
March 3, 2013
As far as poetry goes I usually don't pick it up and probably due to the fact over the years it has been elevated to something rather esoteric. But I rather loved this collection because it made poetry so accessible because it was dedicated to a subject that everyone understands and has a relationship with: food and drink. I think this would make a great introductory collection of poetry to anyone's home library. Because the poetry is varied it allows for so many possible instances of someone actually finding a piece of poetry they may enjoy.
November 11, 2014
First off, I find the cover photo incredibly appealing. Then, the author's Dedication and Introduction drew my in even further. I hadn't even gotten to the poems. This is one of my first forays into poetry, which is why I chose an anthology. You're not "stuck" with one author, but rather get to sample a wide range of folks. And what a range! I can think of only one or two poems that didn't speak to me on some level. These poems were worth relishing, and I took my time with the book. I'd highly recommend it.
February 13, 2015
i think that I will never read
anything quite like poetry.
a food and drink anthology
that comforts my soul
and appeases me.
I put down my ploughshares,
give thanks for the meal
and the way that a pinot
can make me feel.
Ok, so Joyce Kilmer I am not... But this book, edited by the great American contempary poet, Kevin Young, will surely delight. For certainly, everything you enjoy or experience one time or another: happiness, love, family, death, sex, trouble can be associated with food or spirits.
This book brings shear joy!
anything quite like poetry.
a food and drink anthology
that comforts my soul
and appeases me.
I put down my ploughshares,
give thanks for the meal
and the way that a pinot
can make me feel.
Ok, so Joyce Kilmer I am not... But this book, edited by the great American contempary poet, Kevin Young, will surely delight. For certainly, everything you enjoy or experience one time or another: happiness, love, family, death, sex, trouble can be associated with food or spirits.
This book brings shear joy!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews