Hunger in New York City

Simon Ortiz 1976

“Hunger in New York City” was first published in 1976 in Simon Ortiz’s collection Going for the Rain and is also included in the 1991 book Woven Stone: A 3-in-l Volume of Poetry and Prose, which collects all of the poet’s published poetry to that time. “Hunger in New York City” contrasts the America exemplified by New York City to what Ortiz calls “the real America,” which is “the Native America of indigenous people and the indigenous principle they represent.” In fact, while one of the purposes of Ortiz’s work is to define “Native America,” another is to call for its survival. “Hunger in New York City” is a variation on this theme, as it tells the story of how dehumanizing city life can be in its separation from “mother earth.” Indeed, Ortiz has said that “[a]s a writer, I’ve tried to consider most importantly my life as a Native American who is absolutely related to the land and all that that means culturally, politically, personally.”

Basic to Ortiz’s work as a writer are the Native-American oral storytelling tradition and the ritual of prayer. This poem tells the story of engaging fully with a hunger that takes on the magnitude of a symbolic opponent and ends with a prayer to “Bless me.” The alienation of the individual in the city that this hunger represents is not, however, a solely Native-American experience. But it is perhaps possible for the rest of us to understand through the Native-American experience of the land as mother how to heal the wound of alienation.