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Haiku and Tanka are traditional forms of Japanese poetry. Nalini Shetty pens two evocative sequences.
Haiku sequence: Brief moments from nature and daily life, where sound, silence, and small movements linger beyond their vanishing.
Tanka sequence: Poems of memory, silence, and renewal, where the unspoken continues to resonate.
Haiku
misty clearing
a doe steps through
what’s left of sound
after rain
lichen on the branch
more vivid than breath
dawn river
a ripple outlives
the heron
temple steps
between incense and dusk
a lizard waits
last wave—
a crab hesitates
in its borrowed shell
______________________________________
Tanka
just before snow
the hush between
two crows
how softly
the world prepares
in the dry creek
a leaf flutters
then stills
not everything
needs to arrive
among the ruins
a fig tree
roots through sandstone
my father’s stories
without a beginning
too tired to write
I watch moonlight drift
across my floor . . .
some poems come
only when I wait
summer wind
slips through
the rice stalks
what isn’t said
still moves
(Illustration courtesy Nalini Shetty)
More Must Read in LnC
Rakta Karabi (Red Oleander): A Tribute Poem to Tagore’s Drama
Inspired by the Lotus Sutra – A Poem and Painting on Buddha
India Diary – Poetic Musings
The Final Masquerade: a Ballad
Nalini Shetty is a writer and haikai poet based in Mumbai. Her work explores contemporary life through traditional Japanese short forms such as haiku, senryu, tanka, tanka prose, and haibun. She is particularly drawn to themes of impermanence, memory, and the extraordinary within the ordinary. Nalini’s poetry often incorporates unclichéd imagery, disjunction, and subtle surrealism, and she has been frequently published in both Indian and international haikai journals.
All Posts of Nalini Shetty
All Posts of Nalini Shetty
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