Poetry Pea - haiku and other English Language Japanese short forms

Looking for tanka and kyōka inspiration? In this episode of Poetry Peacast, Patricia shares a selection of English-language tanka and kyōka to inspire your own Japanese short-form poetry writing.

We explore how tanka can capture memory, childhood, grief, renewal, humour and everyday life – and how kyōka can use wit, satire and the conventions of traditional Japanese poetry in unexpected ways.

Among the poems we hear are Yomono ...

Join Patricia on the Poetry Peacast for S9E38, featuring haiku and senryu inspired by paragliding in Interlaken, Switzerland, with David Cox as editor of the August Video Prompt.

Discover the poems selected by David Cox, as Patricia explores the beauty of the Swiss Alps, the history of Interlaken, the spectacular Jungfrau region, and even a few James Bond connections. From silent paragliders floating between church steeples to fleet...

Welcome back to the Poetry Peacast! After a rather unfortunate disappearing act by my voice, I’m back behind the microphone with a special episode celebrating haibun from Tendrils, Volume 3, the Poetry Pea journal of haibun.

In this episode, I read the Editor’s Choice and Honourable Mentions from the journal, outstanding haibun by Cathryn Daley, Mark Forrester and Sara Winteridge.

I explore what makes a successful haibun...

Welcome to the Poetry Pea July Video Prompt, featuring a wonderful collection of haiku, senryū and short poetry selected and curated by guest editor Matt Snyder. Thank you Matt.

This month’s episode comes to you from the beautiful Lauterbrunnen Valley in Switzerland — Tolkien’s Rivendell — where the July Video Prompt was filmed.

Patricia begins with a bonus poem of her own before sharing the poems chosen by Ma...

This week on Poetry Pea Summer Classics, we're revisiting one of the most joyful forms of Japanese linked verse: renku.

Sit back and enjoy readings of three collaborative renku created by members of the Poetry Pea community: Drinking Moonrise, Wing to Wing, and Spring Table. These beautifully crafted linked poems demonstrate how individual voices can come together to create something richer than the sum of their parts.

If today's epi...

Take a journey into the beautifully observed world of poet Vandana Parashar in this Poetry Pea Summer Classic. Originally recorded as part of our popular reading series, Vandana reads from her acclaimed collection Alone, I Am Not, sharing poems rich in humanity, quiet insight and the extraordinary moments hidden within everyday life.

We also celebrate the publication of her more recent collection, We, the People, a book that continu...

Join us for a special summer replay of the Poetry Pea Podcast featuring award-winning haiku poet David J Kelly reading from his acclaimed collection small hadron divider, a Touchstone Distinguished Books Honourable Mention.

In this thoughtful and engaging episode, David explores the fascinating meeting point of science and poetry. Inspired by the six flavours of quarks and the forces that bind the universe together, small hadron div...

In this special summer replay, Patricia McGuire welcomes acclaimed haiku poet Tyrone McDonald for a memorable Poetry Pea reading and conversation.

Tyrone's haiku explore family, identity, race, music, memory and the natural world with remarkable clarity and emotional depth. From the unforgettable morning fog / when my embryo... had gills to poems of jazz, gratitude, homecoming and history, his work demonstrates the power of the shor...

This week on Poetry Pea, we're revisiting one of the highlights from our much-loved reading series.

Join acclaimed poet Lorraine Padden as she reads from her beautiful collection Upwelling, sharing poems rich in observation, memory and the quiet moments that so often inspire haiku and related forms.

Whether you're discovering Lorraine's work for the first time or returning to this favourite episode, it's the perfect opportunity to en...

Join us for a special Poetry Pea Salon recording featuring Reid Hepworth reading from her award-winning collection, The Improbability of Sea Monkeys.

Reid's book has received an HSA Merit Book Award, recognised for its evocative haiku and haibun, its honest exploration of identity and memory, and its vivid portrayal of growing up in the 1960s and 70s.

In this Poetry Pea Salon event, Reid shares her poems and the stories behind them.

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In this episode of Poetry Pea, the leading English-language haiku podcast, Patricia asks can a single line hold an entire world?

In this special Poetry Pea podcast, we explore the art of the one-line haiku and senryū through a carefully curated selection of original poems chosen from our latest submission period.

Writing a successful one-line poem is far more challenging than it appears. In this episode you'll hear the poems selected...

In this episode, In this episode of Poetry Pea, the leading English-language haiku podcast, Patricia McGuire shares the haiku and senryū selected from the June 2026 Poetry Pea Video Prompt, beautifully curated by Lakshmi Iyer.

Expect poems filled with birdsong, summer heat, nesting season, squirrels, sparrows, warblers and the small moments that make haiku so memorable. Alongside the selected poems, Patricia also reads a collection...

In this episode of Poetry Pea, the leading English-language haiku podcast, Patricia asks what makes a haiku a haiku? Is there really a difference between traditional and contemporary haiku, or have we complicated something that was once quite simple?

In this episode of the Poetry Peacast, Patricia explores the essential elements of the Japanese haiku tradition, discussing the must haves of haiku.

Drawing on the work of Haruo Shirane,...

In this episode of the Poetry Pea Podcast, Patricia McGuire introduces the remarkable poetry of Anne McKay, an award-winning Canadian poet whose lyrical haiku and haiku-inspired poetry deserve to be much better known.

She explores a selection of Anne McKay's haiku, looking at her evocative imagery, her musical use of language, her distinctive use of white space, and the subtle techniques that make her poems linger long after they've...

Rivers have always carried stories. In this episode of the Poetry Pea Podcast, we follow their winding course through a carefully curated collection of contemporary haiku and senryū, alongside classic poems that continue to inspire writers today.

These tiny poems explore rivers as places of connection and separation, memory and movement, peace and conflict. From quiet birdsong to distant sirens, from bridges that unite to waters tha...

In the final episode of this three-part series on noun poetry, Patricia reads a wonderful collection of listener poems, inspired by the nouns. This episode examines how carefully chosen images can evoke emotion without relying on explanation or abstract language.

With practical analysis and inspiring examples, this episode offers valuable insights for anyone looking to write stronger haiku, senryū and short-form poetry.

Whether you'r...

Can a haiku be lyrical without relying on verbs? Can a handful of carefully chosen nouns carry all the emotional weight a poem needs?

In this second episode exploring the poetry of nouns, Patricia examines how concrete images create resonance, rhythm and lyricism in haiku and senryū. Drawing on poems by:

Alan Summers

Radostina Dragostinova

Hifsa Ashraf

Laura Driscoll

Sharon Lynne Yee

Mark Gilbert

Paul m

Christopher Peys

Máire Morrissey-Cummi...

In this episode of the Poetry Pea Podcast, we explore why haiku has often been described as "the poetry of the noun" and ask whether removing verbs and limiting adjectives can make a poem even more powerful.

Through close readings of haiku by John Wills, Elizabeth Searle Lamb, Charles Rossiter, Noel King, Choshi, Anne Curran, and Bisshie, we discover how concrete nouns create atmosphere, emotion and meaning without explanation. We l...

In this episode of the Poetry Pea Podcast, Patricia shares a fresh collection of haiku and senryu from Poetry Pea’s much-loved Flashku submissions — a spontaneous 24-hour poetry challenge open to poets on the Poetry Pea mailing list.

Featuring poems by Nalini Shetty, Robert Witmer, Sébastien Revon, Emil Karla, Steve Bahr, Katie Montagna, Deborah A Bennett, Samo Kreutz, Cynthia Anderson, Sara Winteridge, John Hare, Mark F...