Cookbook

On friday for class we got to experience a poem. When I hear that we had to read a poem I groaned a little bit inside. I have never fully understood poems, most of the time I don't understand their meanings. THey don't make any sense to me and I automatically want to scan over them.

This poem was different. It was about an onion. Yes, an onion. The most insignifcant piece of veggetable known to man. Is it even a veggetable? Well regardless I'm wandering what makes someone want to write about an onion and on top of that what makes our teacher want to make us read about an onion. I read the first time...ok that was weird. Then he makes us evaluate it. I'm still wondering what he's going at. Then we read it again, he reads to us and at this time it starts making more sense. Is this writer talking about an onion? Perhaps she is just simply talking about the signifcant of an onion or is she talking about the pains and insifigant she felt? Is she talking about a group of people or an event that she experienced? As we read along I start digging deep within the story and I realize that perhaps this poem is a representation.

I have always read a poem just to get it over with. Now I realize that to understand a text you must read it several times and not only do you read it but you must experience and take it further than the words. For the onion we saw our teacher cut up the onion and we got to smell it. This brought the story out to life. I actually grew an appreciation for onions. More than that I have grown a deep appreciation for poems.