Eight Tanka Poems by Hifsa Ashraf

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