the mother's lullaby
for everyone
— Hifsa Ashraf (kontinuum: kortárs haiku/contemporary haiku 1.1)
Touchstone Award for Individual Poems Winners for 2021
Commentary from the Panel:
“Who hasn’t been there. You’re tired and stressed from a long day at work, and you just want to get back home as hassle-free as possible. On a deeper level the train, plane, or bus commute also makes you feel “alone in a crowd,” especially at night. More existential still, maybe you feel like “a motherless child a long way from home” in the words of that old spiritual. These and other implied circumstances set the scene for us in the opening line. And then we hear a song. Not someone’s cellphone music that we dread, but rather a mother’s lullaby for the baby she cradles in her arms. A homely act which changes nothing, and yet transforms everything, about the circumstances. We are comforted now, more at peace. Each and all of us, within the sound of her voice.”
“Who hasn’t been there. You’re tired and stressed from a long day at work, and you just want to get back home as hassle-free as possible. On a deeper level the train, plane, or bus commute also makes you feel “alone in a crowd,” especially at night. More existential still, maybe you feel like “a motherless child a long way from home” in the words of that old spiritual. These and other implied circumstances set the scene for us in the opening line. And then we hear a song. Not someone’s cellphone music that we dread, but rather a mother’s lullaby for the baby she cradles in her arms. A homely act which changes nothing, and yet transforms everything, about the circumstances. We are comforted now, more at peace. Each and all of us, within the sound of her voice.”
Comments by Meredith Ackroyd
This is a beautiful poem, with such depth. I can’t help but think of all the refugees leaving home by train, but also how this is a metaphor for any of us traveling in the dark and the unexpected comforts that we offer one another along the way. I think too that this poem speaks deeply to the work of mothering, which has societal impact that reaches far beyond any one family. I feel comforted by this poem each time I read it, and so in its own way it becomes a kind of lullaby too. Well done, Hifsa, and congratulations!
From The Haiku Foundation page: https://thehaikufoundation.org/touchstone-awards-for-individual-poems-2021/#comment-140977
The Haiku Foundation is pleased to announce The Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems for haiku published in 2021. Over 1500 poems were nominated this year by poets, readers and editors around the world. The Individual Poems Panel considered the poems as a group as well as individually. A first winnowing resulted in the Long List, some 57 poems from a wide range of journals and contests , and a second round of voting and discussion led to the Short List (30 poems). Our third and final round recognizes six haiku with the highest honor of Awarded Haiku.
The panelists: Roberta Beary, Chuck Brickley, Anna Maris, Pravat Kumar Padhy, Christopher Patchel, and Angela Terry
The Haiku Foundation is pleased to announce The Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems for haiku published in 2021. Over 1500 poems were nominated this year by poets, readers and editors around the world. The Individual Poems Panel considered the poems as a group as well as individually. A first winnowing resulted in the Long List, some 57 poems from a wide range of journals and contests , and a second round of voting and discussion led to the Short List (30 poems). Our third and final round recognizes six haiku with the highest honor of Awarded Haiku.
The panelists: Roberta Beary, Chuck Brickley, Anna Maris, Pravat Kumar Padhy, Christopher Patchel, and Angela Terry
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French Translation by Serge Tome.
late-night train
the mother's lullaby
for everyone
train de nuit
la berceuse de la mère
pour tous
won the Touchstone Individual Poems Award 2021, (kontinuum: kortárs haiku/contemporary haiku 1.1) Haïku reposant sur le mystère du train filant dans la nuit. Ici, c'est le thème de l'insomnie de l'enfant qui sert de motif. Le discours est réellement prenant et on semble faire partie du 'tous' de L3. Une image universelle, prenante et intemporelle.
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Longlisted for The Haiku Foundation’s Touchstone Award 2021 where there were 27 haiku out of 1,506 poems selected.
adding ellipses
to the darkest night
winter stars
Frogpond, issue 44:3 Autumn 2021
