Running After Shadows displays Ashraf's keen ability to sympathize with women's mental health issues and to allow readers to inhabit the perceptions of victims of cerebral suffering. Without inhibition, the haiku in this collection dive into the world of a wide array of mental health issues, and how it connects with nature and our surroundings. Complementing this comprehensive view is the range of styles of haiku, which include poems that feature abstraction, and on the flip side, a gritty realism. Having the context of Ashraf being an activist and community developer, this volume bleeds even more with concern for those who are left behind, untreated in a harsh world.
- NICHOLAS KLACSANSKY, Editor of Haiku Commentary Blog, Author of Zen and Son and How Many Become One
With a skilled hand, Hifsa Ashraf casts light onto a world of darkness that is often kept hidden in shadows. These poems about mental illness resonate with compassion and resound with the pitch of an emotional experience expressed truly. Taken singly, the reader will find connections to their own inner process with a reminder that we are linked through the humanness of our struggles.
- KAT LEHMANN, Author of Stumbling Toward Happiness: Haibun and Hybrid Poems
Respect is both due and deserving, to all of womenkind who endure and suffer from mental health issues. This genre of short poetry, I feel, can add to the ongoing vital discussions, and the need to enlighten us, and offer an additional balm to those in desperate need. I am delighted that this collection honors the women who have this incredibly heavy and extra burden alongside the other challenges in life. Quoting from part of one of the haiku, no one should be "standing still on the dark path" alone, without support from family and larger community.
- ALAN SUMMERS, Co-founder, Call of the Page
