Hi everyone!  We have a guest host for today’s poetics, Melissa Lemay – Grace

Welcome to Tuesday Poetics! Hello from lovely Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Melissa here—I am thrilled to be guest hosting today! Onions are just okay for me; I can take them or leave them. I do not like them sautéed. They are abundant at local farmers’ markets this time of year.

In ancient Egypt, onions were highly praised for their eternal anatomy; they buried them with pharaohs (History | New Mexico State University). A few other interesting facts:

#Vidalia onions, by law, are only grown in the state of Georgia.

#According to the Guinness Book of World Records, British gardener, Tony Glover, grew the largest onion. It weighed 18 pounds, 11 ounces.

#Sulfur is the reason onions cause people’s eyes to produce tears.

There is a plethora of poetry written in their honor:

“I don’t mean to make you cry.
I mean nothing, but this has not kept you
From peeling away my body, layer by layer,

The tears clouding your eyes as the table fills
With husks, cut flesh, all the debris of pursuit.
Poor deluded human: you seek my heart.”

—Monologue for an Onion by Suji Kwock Kim – Poems | poets.org

“It is right that tears fall
for something small and forgotten.
How at meal, we sit to eat,
commenting on texture of meat or herbal aroma
but never on the translucence of onion,
now limp, now divided,
or its traditionally honorable career:
For the sake of others,
disappear.”

—The Traveling Onion by Naomi Shihab Nye – Poems | poets.org

“The onion is the best symbol of the O. Sliced, a volatile gas stings
The slicer’s eyes like a punishment clouding them until they see
What someone trapped beneath a lid of water sees:

A soft-edged world, a blur of blooms holding a coffin afloat.
The onion is pungent, its scent infects the air with sadness,
All the pallbearers smell it.”

—How to Draw a Perfect Circle by Terrance Hayes | Poetry Magazine

Source

Pungent. Humble. Misunderstood. Immaculate. Little thought of. Now it’s your turn. Write a poem including the onion in some way, no matter how small. Perhaps take note from Fady Joudah:

“Why are there onions the size of swallows in your maple tree?
In the land of cactus wind the one-eyed dwell.
Where is the village whose name holds back the sea?
Caterpillars are for home demolitions in a globe of tents.”

—The Onion Poem | The New Yorker

Or Sylvia Plath:

“What a thrill –
My thumb instead of an onion.
The top quite gone
Except for a sort of hinge”

—Cut by Sylvia Plath – All Poetry

Observe. Salute. Or write an entire poem in admiration. Take inspiration from some art with onions, as there is also an abundance.

Source

Chop chop!

At the bar tonight we have the Gibson (Gibson Cocktail Recipe), a martini of gin and dry vermouth, garnished with a pickled onion; the Red Zeppelin (Red Zeppelin: An Onion Cocktail – Imbibe Magazine), a mix of tequila, pineapple rum, lime and pineapple juices, salted red onion syrup, garnished with red onion skins; cold brewed lemon, honey, ginger soother; and onion tea with brown Kandis sugar (Onion Tea (Home Remedy for Cough) Recipe). Please note that my mixed drinks are not light on spirits. For snacking, we have herbed Vidalia onion tea sandwiches; pork medallions with onion marmalade; or traditional onion rings. We also have a Cobb salad with roasted sweet onion dressing; or rib eye with charred spring onions and salsa verde.

If you are new, here’s how to join us:

*Write a poem based on the writing challenge as described above. Post it on your blog or website.
*Enter your name and direct link to your poem in Mr. Linky.
*Remember to check the box re: privacy policy.
*Follow the links to other poets. Read and comment on other poems. We all appreciate feedback on our poems.
*Link back to dVerse so others can find us too.
*Have fun!

About our guest host:

Melissa Lemay is a stay-at-home mother from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She never graduated college. She has lived an interesting life and her experiences shape her writing (some might call it an obsession). She writes about God, addiction, trauma, healing, being a mother, and many other things. Additionally, she enjoys spending time with family, drinking good coffee, and cats–petting them, not drinking them. Find her at https://melissalemay.wordpress.com