The Mainichi - Best of 2025

ceasefire — the sky blooms with fireworks

Dec. 27, 2025

Comment: After a ceasefire, celebratory fireworks fill the sky. The word “blooms” captures the transformation — explosions that once brought destruction now create beauty and joy. The irony is sharp: similar lights and sounds in the sky, opposite meanings. For those who endured bombardment, the celebration may carry complex emotions, but the haiku simply presents the moment — the sky reclaimed, violence replaced by festivity, at least for now.

Haiku in English – Best of 2025 by The Mainichi Shimbun, Japan’s national daily.

https://cdn.mainichi.jp/vol1/2026/03/23/20260323p2a00m0et003000q/0.pdf?1

https://pjcaislamabad.org.pk/2026/03/24/haiku-of-hifsa-best-of-2025/

Charlotte Digregorio's Writer's Blog, 2026

bridal mannequin
the price tag
around its neck

by Hifsa Ashraf (Pakistan)

tinywords, Issue 23.2, Jan. 22, 2024
Charlotte Digregorio on July 16, 2026

https://charlottedigregorio.wordpress.com/2026/07/16/the-daily-haiku-with-hifsa-ashraf-kim-klugh-and-sara-winteridge-july-17-2026/#comment-31622

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grassy trail
in the deep forest . . .
after your departure
I choose not to tread
the same path

Quail Eggs – A Tanka Journal, Issue 4, March 2026

Charlotte Digregorio's Writer's Blog, March 18, 2026

https://charlottedigregorio.wordpress.com/2026/03/18/daily-haiku-carole-daoust-and-daily-tanka-hifsa-ashraf-march-19-2026/

Quail Eggs Tanka Journal, 2026

dad's old letters
back in the drawer
getting pale—
after the birds leave
the winter horizon

      paper boats
      in the rain puddle
      left alone
      until they soften
      and fall apart

Quail Eggs, A tanka journal, Issue 5 - June 2026

https://quaileggstanka.blogspot.com/p/issue-5-june-2026-tanka-doha.html

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grassy trail
in the deep forest
after your departure
I choose not to tread
the same path

Quail Eggs, A tanka journal, Issue 4 - March 2026

https://quaileggstanka.blogspot.com/p/issue-4-march-2026-tanka-page-8.html

The Bougainvillea Journal, 2026

winter sunlight—
a patch of marigolds
in family garden

moving day—
on the dining table
wilted marigolds

wandering after cawing fades into the winter dusk


The Bougainvillea Journal, Issue 01 – Spring 2026.
https://aswordsfly.com/index.php/issue-1/

The Mamba Journal, 2026

back home late

dad tracing my face

for what I was

 

The Mamba, Journal of Africa Haiku Network, September 2026 issue 

https://africahaikunetwork.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/mamba-20-journal-of-africa-haiku-network.pdf

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suspended
in the manhattan dust
the elephant’s tusk

dune after dune
the missing curve
of crescent moon

waterfall rainbow
blooming all the colours
in my irises

dusk at Safari
a baobab holds up
the setting sun
  
settling dust
the low flight
of a kori bustard

The Mamba: Journal of the African Haiku Network, Issue 19 February 2026

 https://africahaikunetwork.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/mamba-19-february-2026.pdf

Poetry Pea Journal, 2026

spring twilight

a cricket's chirp unfolds 

its colours 

Published in Poetry Pea Journal 2:26

April Video Prompt feature as selected by Lakshmi Iyer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lMI5iaXkqk

Also featured in Poetry Pea Podcast, aired on 26th May, 2026
https://poetrypea.com/category/podcast/page/2/

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winter dusk—
my thoughts drift
into the murmuration

poetry pea short video prompt by Arvinder Kaur
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYafdCDt1J4

S9E13 Poetry Pea Podcast - Haiku between wings, contemporary short poetry (at 2:51) and also in Poetry Pea journal 1:26.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iok6-UlZOg

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village trail—
the mud tracks take me
back to my childhood

-Hifsa Ashraf


S9E7 Poetry Pea Podcast - A Monster haiku & senryu edition. Also in Poetry Pea Journal, 1:26

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKVTs87mids

haikuKATHA, 2026

Under the Blue Sky 

I play hopscotch across the drought-scarred land of my family. The sound of crickets rising from the cracks is somehow soothing to my ears. Abu sits quietly on a clay mound, watching me and the land that has fed our family for generations. The furrows on his brow deepen with each passing season, yet he keeps a soft smile on his face. This is the second year without enough rain to soften our soil. Whenever clouds drift over our land, we follow them with hope in our eyes until they disappear. 

uneven trail — 

we stumble over 

our own shadows

haikuKATHA - Issue 58, 22 August 2026

https://www.trivenihaikai.in/post/haikukatha-issue-58

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Transience

She wants me to play with the clay toys she’s made from the river’s mud. It’s been a month since the river washed away her village. Since then, she has been living in a relief camp, trying to ease the ache of homelessness by moulding flood mud into fragile shapes. Her life has always swayed between a clay-bricked home and a tattered tent. Now, as a teenager, she no longer speaks her feelings — there are no words left, only silence in her barren eyes. She kneads that silence into clay. Before I leave, we build a tiny clay house together. She pours imaginary tea into a cup she has moulded and hands it to me.

midsummer moon —
I revert
to my former self

haikuKATHA, issue 52, February 2026

https://www.trivenihaikai.in/post/haikukatha-issue-52