Eight Tanka Poems
temporary shelter
the little smiles
come and go
the little smiles
in temporary shelter
back home
out of the haze
mom's smile—
at the threshold
a crescent moon
midnight solitude
the candle and I
in silence—
whirling around
like a dervish
fading stars
in the foreign sky—
a lone mother
sings a lullaby
to her missing child
summer heat
on the balcony
my silk dupatta
folding in
the lost birdsong
two mynas hop
across the mowed lawn
spring breeze
swaying my thoughts
back to younger years
spring drizzle
leaves behind
petrichor—
this sense of being
beyond being
winter twilight
on the park bench
falling leaves
a void that deepens
my silence
Hifsa Ashraf is an award-winning multilingual poet, author, editor, and social activist based in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. She is a pioneer in Pakistan for writing Japanese-form English micropoetry and is internationally recognized with publications in over 200 literary venues worldwide and numerous prestigious international awards. She is the author of six individual and four collaborative micropoetry collections. She received the Touchstone Award for Individual Poems (2021) from The Haiku Foundation (USA) and was shortlisted again in 2022. Her poetry collection Her Fading Henna Tattoo received Honourable Mentions in the Touchstone Distinguished Books Award (2020) and the Haiku Society of America Merit Book Award (2021). Her latest collaborative mystical haiku collection, Beyond Emptiness, is co-authored with Jacob D. Salzer and Nicholas Klacsanzky.
Blog: hifsays.blogspot.com
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