Poet Profile

Hifsa Ashraf

Hifsa Ashraf is from Pakistan. She is an award-winning poet, story writer, and co-editor of Haiku Commentary blog. Her haiku, senryu, tanka, haiga, cherita, sonnets, and free verse poems have been published in various international poetry journals, anthologies, and magazines. Besides that, her short stories have been published in a UK based online English magazine. Hifsa is currently working on a tanka collection of real stories about the refugees who migrated to Pakistan.

Awards and Other Honors:

1st place winner, Third Annual Jane Reichhold Haiga Competition, November 2018 organised by Failed Haiku and Prune Juice; 3rd place winner, Annual Tanka Contest 2017 Annual Tanka Contest 2017; Honorable Mention, The 19th HIA Haiku Contest; Honorable mention in Mt. Fuji Tanka Grand Pix Contest, 2018; Highly Commended in the Australian Haiku Society Winter Solstice 2019 Haiga Kukai for the Non-Seasonal Haiga category.

winter solitude . . .
the war veteran turns
back the clock

peace negotiations―
a refugee child collects 
the bullet shells

blackout― 
acrid smoke curls 
around the moon

leaky roof―
a refugee child catches
the raindrops

winter dawn―
half glass full
of apple cider

deforestation 
a pine tree falls 
on its own shadow

Credits:

“winter solitude“ - Highly Commended in the Australian Haiku Society Winter Solstice 2019 Haiga Kukai for the Non-Seasonal Haiga category; “peace negotiations“ — hedgerow #127, Spring 2019; “blackout“ — Wales Haiku Journal, Spring 2019; “leaky roof“ – Modern Haiku Vol. 50:1, Winter-Spring 2019; “winter dawn“ — Haiku Universe, Feb. 2nd, 2018; “deforestation“ - The 19th HIA Haiku Contest, 2017 Honorable Mention (Selected by Toshio Kimura).