“Know your onions” is what they say
how can you know something with so many layers.
Pauper’s Hotpot layers sliced onions, potatoes and bits of bacon
My parents gave me The Pauper’s Cookbook when I went to University
University does not teach you to cook onions but you may learn whilst there
recipes always say sweat onions until translucent but not the long care that takes.
Sweating it is the secret to life and the search for transparency
it takes what it takes to get there – a lifetime even…
Many unexpected things come to you in a lifetime
I found an album of Booker T including Green Onions in the middle of Brixton at 3a.m. and loved it ever since
Spring Onions are green and tender – it’s like eating onion babies
other colours are available – purple, white, brown – on the outside.
We grow new outside layers with each new age we reach
To “Know your onions” peel a person to the heart, layer by layer…
This poem was written in response to Melissa LeMay as guest over at the dVerse Poets Pub last night. I was very taken with the previous Poets Pub Challenge to write a Duplex poem – seven couplets where the baton of an idea, a sudden twist in each second line, is passed to the first line of the next couplet and although I have written in similar form here, I have relaxed the strictures of line length and I still can’t shape the form as being bluesy as it’s inventor talks about…
© Andrew Wilson, 2023
I like how you made this a sort of Duplex poem–the opening and closing lines work really well. I especially like what you did with the final line.
I like the onion poster image, too. 🙂
I forgot to say that it was a Midjourney image – you can’t zoom in on the words so they probably are just there for appearance AI’s can be weird like that.
So glad you liked the poem Merril…
A great take on the duplex, Andrew, and the way you describe it as ‘the baton of an idea, a sudden twist in each second line, is passed to the first line of the next couplet’. I like that saying ‘to know your onions’ and where it took you. How, indeed, can you know something with so many layers? Sweating onions always make my mouth water, like the aroma of coffee and toast. And I’m not surprised that you ‘found an album of Booker T including Green Onions in the middle of Brixton at 3 a.m.’ – you can find most things there at any time of day – or at least you could when I lived in South London.
I was cycling home from a party and had to swerve round a carrier bag. I went back to investigate it and found about 8 albums…
We can learn a lot from an onion. I find them intriguing with there circling design. Life is circular and connective. Interesting that there is no real core you just peel the layers until it disappears. Your poem gets to the heart of things.
Unpealing the layers is like travelling hopefully rather than arriving…
Thanks for visiting!
Andrew, this is a wonderful piece ~ love it <3
Well written, good sir!
Much love,
David
I imagine you to be a foodie David – yes?
Glad you liked it…
A real onion primer. Who knew?
Courtesy of Midjourney Judy…
This is amazing. I didn’t realize it was a duplex at first, and I had to read through it a second time. You did a wonderful job with the form.
I like the sort of pivot here:
“Sweating it is the secret to life and the search for transparency
it takes what it takes to get there – a lifetime even…”
It takes the reader back from day to day life and the cooking of onions to a deeper meaning and process of growth and learning, and then back again in subsequent stanzas. A really excellent take, Andrew.🧅❤️
I can’t always see the arc of a poem when I start but it usually emerges half way through – glad I did justice to your great prompt Melissa…
I love the last two lines… I agree… our layers change as we grow older and wiser. What a great poem.
Thank you Coleen and thanks for visiting…
I really love the first two lines… they stand otu to me. Wonderfully crafted, thank you for sharing!
Thank you Miriam and thanks for visiting…
This is exquisitely woven, Andrew! 💖💖💖
Thank you Sanaa, I enjoyed writing it after not initially relishing the prompt, but I turned it over in my mind, got a few stanzas in my head and the rest followed…
Such a lot within your poem! I especially was drawn to:
‘University does not teach you to cook onions but you may learn whilst there
recipes always say sweat onions until translucent but not the long care that takes.’
A great write!
The University of Oxford used to award an MA automatically after one year out in the world on the basis that a BA from Oxford plus a year’s experience was worth it…
Thanks for visiting and your kind comment!
So many different kinds of onions and I love this part specially:
Sweating it is the secret to life and the search for transparency
it takes what it takes to get there – a lifetime even…
Didn’t know it was a duplex form too. Good one!
Well I took considerable liberties with line lengths but its the baton passing and the twists that fuel the form for me!
Thanks Grace…
Nice work! Onions and people are very similar. Peeling helps learn to know what we are all about.
Gently of course Dwight, gently…
Nice sounding and running duplex, Frewin.
My final “University does you to cook onions” in a cooking class for the Culinary Arts Degree. The University of Houston also offers Hotel Management Degree, it has a student run restaurant on campus.
..
Its what is not on the syllabus that often counts most don’t you think Jim?
Thanks for visiting…
Your last stanza is my favourite of this poem.
Thanks for dropping by my blog.
Much💖love