Tanka, Haiku and two found poems

    by Tejinder Sethi

    Tanka

    shiuli flower
    trembles in the night breeze
    and perishes at dawn …
    what shall I give into
    but the burden of my karma

    ***

    starlit night …
    on a pavement
    in tattered clothes
    a beggar sings Kabira
    enlightening the passers-by

    ***

    kintsugi
    azure waters
    fill the cracks of my poems
    I heal
    I heal

    (published on Instagram, Facebook on my page)

    ***

    her fingers scribble
    his name on the sand
    silently letting the waves
    sweep away …
    as they did, his body

    Haiku String

    silent waters —
    holding the ache
    beneath

    blood moon —
    fury of high tides
    in his eyes

    torn apart
    piece by piece —
    wildflower

    an old peepal —
    bare limbs
    hang in the air

    ashes —
    the stench of
    patriarchy in the air

    Untold

    Woman,
    with her powerful weapon,
    voice
    is a river
    without shore

    Abandoned

    birds migrate
    farther
    Oh abandoned one

    Found Poems from Pablo Neruda’s Love poems, ‘Body of a woman and The song of despair’

    Tejinder Sethi is a bi-lingual poet currently residing in Bangalore. She freelances in creative writing. She has authored an e-book of Hindi Poetry, ‘Cotton Blooms – Kapaas Ke Phool’. While most of her poems are a melange of her life experiences, the subject close to her heart is the narratives of India – Pakistan Partition. One of her soul stirring poems from the collection ‘Kapaas Ke Phool’ on the Partition of 1947, was awarded and featured by the Partition Museum, Amritsar. Her creations, Shaneel, A Journey to Nowhere, Tareekh, Golden Lotus, Voice Of Draupadi and others have been published in various anthologies and journals. Inspired by ‘karumi’ (lightness) and ‘ma’ (space/emptiness) in haikai aesthetics, she has recently transitioned from free verse to haikai verse. triya is a digital space she’s carved for the translations of her published haiku, tanka, haibun and tanka prose. You can reach her at tejisethi13@gmail.com

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