Tanka Tuesday Poetry Challenge: Javanese Poetry

Tanka Tuesday Poetry Challenge: Javanese Poetry

Shalom, Friends! For those who may not know me, my name is David (‘ben Alexander’) Bogomolny, and I’m really happy to be hosting this week’s #TankaTuesday challenge.

This week we are going to try a new (to us) poetic form.

So, this week’s challenge is to compose a ‘Sekar ageng’ poem of your own, according to the following rules, as laid out by Murisopsis:

Sekar ageng – This Javanese form is traditionally recited as a song. The modern form is comprised of any number of quatrains (4 line stanzas) with 17 syllables per line. Each line is divided by caesurae (breaks) after sections of 4 syllables, 6 syllables and 7 syllables in that order.

potato soup / a simple winter meal / warm with crusty sourdough bread

not my tubers / my neighbor shares with me / I'll save a bowl in return

along with bread / it's the least I can do / to repay his gracious gift

at the window / I watch the snow falling / grateful the day's chores are done

cat in my lap / curled in a fuzzy ball / purrs vibrate against my leg

the embers glow / not much warmth left in them / just honey glow in the dark

I wake the cat / she moves nearer the hearth / hoping to find some warmth there

before too long / she'll join me in the bed / her tail curled around her nose

©2024 Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved

#tankatuesdayweeklypoetrychallenge #syllabicpoetry #Javanesepoetry #sekaragengpoem