#TankaTuesday #Poetry Stars No. 260 | #Abhanga

Posted on by Colleen M. Chesebro

Welcome to our weekly poetry stars’ celebration. This week’s challenge was to write an Abhanga poem, which is 6-6-6-4, with an end rhyme scheme of abbc.

“Abhanga, “the completion” is a stanzaic form commonly used for devotional poetic composition although it has also been used for cynicism, satire and reflective moods. It was popular from the 13th thru 17th centuries Marathi Region of India and is described as complex and classic.

The abhanga is a Marathi form, Marathi being one of the major languages of India. It is the official language of Maharashtra, and is also spoken in several neighbouring states in the west of the country, including Goa and Karnataka.” 

poetscollective.org

Reena also shared that Sant Tukaram composed some of the first Abhanga poetry:

“Tukaram, also known as Sant Tukaram, was as an Indian poet and saint in the 17th century. He was one of the saints of the Bhakti movement in Maharashtra who composed the devotional poetry, Abhanga. His kirtans aka spiritual songs were devoted to Vithoba or Vitthala, an avatar of Hindu god Vishnu.”

thefamouspeople.com

And, Sangeetha shared more information about the god, Warkari, who the devotional poetry was written for:

“Warkari (Pronunciation: [ʋaːɾkəɾiː]; Meaning: ‘The one who performs the Wari‘) is a sampradaya (religious movement) within the bhakti spiritual tradition of Hinduism, geographically associated with the Indian state of Maharashtra. Warkaris worship Vitthal (also known as Vithoba), the presiding deity of Pandharpur, regarded as a form of Krishna.”

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warkari

Many thanks to everyone who joined in below:

1.Reena Saxena10.Laura McHarrie19.Selma
2.ben Alexander11.wildchild4720.Gwen Plano
3.https:// willowdot21. wordpress. com12.Yvette M Calleiro21.Jules
4.Harmony Kent13.Ken Gierke / rivrvlogr22.Ruth Klein
5.Kerfe14.Donna Matthews23.Sri
6.Trent McDonald15.Eugenia24.theindieshe
7.s. s.16.D. L. Finn25.You’re next!
8.The Versesmith17.Elizabeth  
9.Annette Rochelle Aben18.anita dawes  

Even though the Abhanga was traditionally written to honor a deity, it’s a versatile form for modern poets as well. There was some stunning poetry out there! Thank you all for joining in!

Be prepared for playfulness with Annette Rochelle Aben’s Hoist the Main Tail. Or Trent McDonald’s Between the Worlds. And, don’t forget Anita Dawes’ Abhanga.

These are just a few of the impressive poems contained in this week’s collection. Please have a read.

A special thank you to Harmony Kent, who 🐦tweeted and retweeted🐦 our poetry on Twitter. #TankaTuesday is gaining a loyal following many thanks to Harmony and our poets. 🙏🏻

Several of you have the twitter share button on your blog, but it isn’t linked to a twitter account. If this is an oversight, here’s your chance to fix it. Otherwise, might I suggest you remove the share buttons to make it easier? (Go to My Sites/Tools/Marketing/Sharing Buttons and follow the instructions).

Happy Valentine’s Day! ❤

See you tomorrow for the new challenge!

25 thoughts on “#TankaTuesday #Poetry Stars No. 260 | #Abhanga”

  5. Some wonderful responses this week. I need to catch up on the last few as I stayed offline this weekend. Congrats to Annette, Trent, and Anita, and all who participated. Have a wonderful week, everyone. Thanks, Colleen 💕🙂

    Liked by 2 people

      1. I don’t think we’ll be forced to use 5.9 themes. I’ve read a lot of articles via WP staff and wpbeginner.com seems make the most sense. This paragraph stood out the most “Full site editing in WordPress 5.9 still relies on your WordPress theme. You can use it to customize some parts of your existing theme, but not to create any designs from scratch.”, and here is the link to their post. https://www.wpbeginner.com/news/whats-new-in-wordpress-5-9-features-and-screenshots/
        I read some time ago WP won’t take your current theme from you but if you try to change themes and go back, it may be gone. ❤️

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        1. Thanks Franci. I’ve been playing with the themes on Wix. They have some lovey themes and their editor is drag and drop and very easy to use. My biggest concern with going self hosted is security. Under the WP business plan all of that is part of their security umbrella. for the info. ❤️

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