Poetry Pea - haiku and other English Language Japanese short forms

This week on The Poetry Peacast, we drift into a river-inspired collection of haiku and senryu from our March video prompt. While Patricia is (technically) in Zürich, today’s episode is carried by the warm currents of South Africa, where the original footage was filmed during a memorable family trip.

The poems featured here have been carefully edited and curated by Johnny Moran—thank you, Johnny—and capture a range of voices responding to water, movement, and the quiet details that make haiku and senryu so powerful.

Congratulations to the poets whose work is included in this episode. Their poems will also appear in the upcoming issue of the 1:26 poetry journal.

In this episode:

• A showcase of original haiku and senryu
• Poetry inspired by rivers, travel, and observation
• Reflections on the March Poetry Pea video prompt
• Community voices from poets around the world

If you enjoy the podcast, you can support us by becoming a member, buying us a coffee, or making a donation via PayPal—all through our website. You can also help by sharing the podcast with your poetry friends and on social media.

And yes—there’s a brief (and heartfelt) nod to Crystal Palace’s latest semi-final. Fingers firmly crossed.

Subscribe to stay up to date with weekly poetry prompts, haiku, senryu, and readings.

Keep writing.

Featured Poets

March Video Prompt

Herb Tate

Neena Singh

David Cox

Jennifer L. Blanck

Mona Bedi

Jacob Blumner

 Lakshmi Iyer India

 Melissa Dennison

 Ralph Matthews

Joshua gage

Christopher Seep

Vaishnavi Ramaswamy

Alicia Samson

Rohan Buettel

Tony Williams

Bonus poetry

Robert Kingston, PPJ Autumn 2021

Mark Gilbert, PPJ Autumn 2021

Anne Morrigan, PPJ 2:23

MartinLucas from Freewheeling

Brett Brady, PPJ 2021

John Hawkhead, PPJ Autumn 2020

Edward Cody Huddleston, Autumn 2020

In this episode of the Poetry Pea Podcast, we continue our exploration of lyrical poetry with a journey into the work of the Japanese haiku masters. From Bashō and Buson to Issa and Shiki, and their contemporaries, we listen to classic haiku in translation and consider how sound, rhythm and imagery carry emotional resonance across centuries.

Following last week’s episode on the eighteenth-century female poet, Chyio-ni, today we turn to the male masters and their friends and contemporaries. These poems span stillness, seasonal awareness, humour, melancholy and the fleeting beauty at the heart of haiku. Expect frogs, evening breezes, cherry blossom, mountain mist and the famous old pond — along with the rarely heard response verse from its original renku.

All poems are read in English translation, allowing the musicality and lyricism of classical Japanese haiku to shine through for modern listeners. If you love haiku, Japanese poetry, short-form poetry, or want inspiration for your own writing, this episode offers a rich selection from some of the greatest poets in the tradition.

Don’t forget to add your poem to this month’s Poetry Pea video prompt in the comments on the channel, and support the podcast if you can.

Links to the poems mentioned are in the show notes.

In this episode of Poetry Pea, I explore the haiku of Chiyo-ni, the 18th-century Japanese poet and Buddhist nun whose lyrical voice is often overlooked when we talk about the great haiku masters. While Bashō, Buson, Shiki and Issa are regularly discussed, Chiyo-ni’s work often takes a back seat.

Prompted by recent conversations about the perceived lack of lyrical poetry in modern haiku, I look at what “lyrical” might mean in the context of haiku. For me, lyrical poetry creates an emotional connection without sentimentality, often supported by musicality, rhythm and the spoken quality of the words. Through a selection of Chiyo-ni’s poems, presented in English translation, I explore how her work achieves this balance with delicacy and restraint.

You’ll hear a range of Chiyo-ni’s haiku, including the well-known morning glory poem, alongside lesser-known pieces that reveal her attentiveness to nature, human feeling and fleeting moments. I also discuss the challenges of translation and how different versions of the same poem can alter tone, rhythm and emotional impact.

I’m also inviting you to take part:

• What does “lyrical” mean to you in haiku?

• Do you think lyrical poetry is missing from contemporary English-language haiku?

• Send me your favourite lyrical haiku (with citations) for possible inclusion in a future episode.

If you enjoy the podcast, please consider supporting Poetry Pea with a membership, a coffee, or sharing it with your poetry friends.

You can also join the mailing list to stay updated with future episodes.

Show notes

In this special Poetry Pea episode, we celebrate impending close of our haibun submissions period with a curated selection of haibun readings. New to haibun? Don’t worry — helpful links in the show notes will guide you through this beautifully blended form of prose and haiku.

All the pieces in this episode share something in common… but will you spot what it is?

Answers in the shownotes.

We also thank Johnny Moran for editing March’s video prompt and welcome Lakshmi Iyer, our guest editor for April. Be sure to submit your poems in the comments under the latest Poetry Pea YouTube video so they can be considered.

Plus, there’s exciting news coming soon from Poetry Pea — and an opportunity you won’t want to miss. To make sure you hear about it, join the Poetry Pea membership via Buy Me a Coffee and sign up for the Poetry Pea mailing list.

Pop in your earbuds and enjoy a thoughtful feast of haibun poetry.

Poets included:

If Wishes Were Horses

Reid Hepworth, DSH issue 29 September 2024

The Wailers

Bisshie, Cattails 2025

A loneliness business, and yet . . .

Chen-ou Li, Contemporary Haibun Online April 2026

Invisible Web

Simon Wilson, Cattails, October 2025

Memento

Neena Singh, Cattails, October 2025

Multiverse

Melissa Dennison, Drifting Sands Haibun, Issue 34, Dec 25

The Far Shore

Sandip Chauhan, haikuKATHA, Issue 43, May 2025

Grandpa Carr’s Kohlrabi

Nicky Gutierrez, Tendrils Haibun Journal, 2024

Mauerspechte

Bisshie, Wales Haiku Journal,Winter 25/26

Rain

Robert Witmer Tokyo, Japan, Drifiting Sands Haibun, issue 34, Dec 2025

Iterations

David J Kelly, Tendrils Haibun Journal, 2024

The Soles of my Feet

Gerry Jacobson, Kokako, Issue 42, March 23, 2025

Tides

Jill Muhrer, Tendrils Haibun Journal, 2025

Step into a listening space shaped by small poems and quiet attention.

This weekly podcast brings together contemporary haiku from voices around the world. Each of our episodes features carefully selected poems, and thoughtful readings.

From murmuration skies to winter dusk, from the hush of birdsong to the swell of the everyday, we explore the moments that might otherwise pass unnoticed — and give them room to resonate.

✨ How to take part:

Respond to our video prompts on YouTube, submit your haibun via our website, and join a growing international community of poets and listeners.

🎧 New episodes released weekly.

Subscribe, listen, and let the words take flight.

Settle in for another episode of the Poetry Pea Podcast, where this time there’s no set theme—yes, maybe it 's a bit trickier for you… but as they say, if it were easy, it wouldn’t be worth doing.

In this episode, you’ll hear a wonderful selection of contemporary haiku and senryu , all submitted without the safety net of a prompt. Our judges—one familiar voice and two brand-new to the podcast—have read the poems anonymously and selected their nominations, decided on a Judges’ Choice and Honourable Mention. You’ll hear their thoughts during the show, with the final results revealed soon in the Poetry Pea Journal.

We also share a few notices from Pea Towers, including details of upcoming submissions for our annual haibun journal, Tendrils, and how you can nominate poems for the Golden Pea Award anthology.

Whether you’re an experienced poet or just discovering English language shortforms there’s something here for you.

Subscribe, join our mailing list, and consider supporting the podcast to help keep the poetry flowing.

And as always—keep writing.

Episode notes

In this episode of the Poetry Peacast, we bring our current exploration of one-line haiku to a halt for now.

After three episodes and a number of thoughtful questions, I reflect on what the form offers, where it challenges us, and where I find myself—at least for now. There is, of course, more to be said, and the conversation remains open, particularly as listeners continue to share their own insights and experiences.

I’ll also be following this series with a short essay drawing together ideas from all three episodes.

Over the coming weeks, the Peacast will turn to your work, featuring original poetry written by listeners, followed by poems inspired by the Poetry Pea video prompt—continuing our focus on poetry out loud and shared creative practice.

If you’d like to take part, you’re warmly invited to submit your work, respond to the prompts, or share your thoughts.

Thank you for listening, and for being part of the Poetry Pea community.

Until next time—keep writing

show notes

This week on the Poetry Pea Podcast there’s a slight change of plan.

Part three of the one-line haiku series isn’t quite ready yet. After posing several questions at the end of part two, I realised I needed a little more time to sit with them. My head is currently full of ideas, possibilities and half-formed thoughts, and rather than rush things, I want to give those questions the attention they deserve.

So, while I continue wrestling with the mysteries of the one-line haiku, I thought I’d share something special with you.

In this episode you’ll hear part one of a conversation with renowned haiku poet Kala Ramesh, originally recorded for our sister podcast, Poetry Pea Readings. Kala’s insights into haiku, creativity and poetic practice are always inspiring, and it felt like the perfect conversation to revisit while we pause the one-line haiku series for a week.

If you enjoy this discussion, you’ll find the link to part two in the show notes.

Next week I’ll be back with part three of the one-line haiku extravaganza — and while I may not have answered every question swirling around in my head, I promise I’ll have given it a very good try.

Check out the show notes for more detail...

In this episode of the Poetry Pea Podcast, we continue our deep dive into the art of the one line haiku and explore five powerful techniques for writing compelling haiku and senryū in English.

If you’ve been experimenting with one line poems and wondering how they work — or whether they work at all — this episode is for you.

We explore five essential techniques for writing strong one line haiku:

• Speed – creating breathless momentum

• Circular structure – poems that can be read in multiple directions

• Truncated form – leaving deliberate space for the reader’s imagination

• Shape and horizontal movement – how visual and directional flow affect meaning

• Multiple cuts – discovering layered readings within a single line

Have we answered our won questions?

• Have we appropriated the Japanese short form?
• Do one line haiku conform to traditional three line expectations?
• Is a poem a one line haiku simply because the poet says it is?
• Why did the one line become so popular — and why have they endured?

Whether you are new to writing haiku or already publishing in journals, this episode offers accessible, practical techniques you can try immediately in your own notebook.

If you enjoy learning about haiku craft, senryū techniques, poetry prompts, and contemporary short form poetry, make sure to follow the podcast and check the show notes for cited poems and further reading.

And don’t forget:

Submit your poems via the YouTube video comments for the Monthly Prompt or try the 3-Word Challenge in our Shorts.

In this episode of The Poetry Pea Podcast, we begin an in-depth exploration of one line haiku and senryū in English. What makes a one line haiku work? Is it simply a haiku written without line breaks, or is there something more subtle happening with rhythm, pause and flow?

Through close readings of poems by Michael Segers, John Wills, Alvin Cruz, Elizabeth Searle Lamb, Kala Ramesh, Tess Sherman, Scott Wiggerman, martin gottlieb cohen and even Allen Ginsberg, we examine how the single line changes pacing, meaning and impact.

We also begin asking some bigger questions about English-language haiku:

• Have Western poets reshaped the short form into something unrecognisable in Japan?
• Are English one line haiku a natural evolution — or a reinvention?
• Is a one line poem a haiku simply because the poet says it is?

This is Part 1 of a short series. Next week we’ll turn to techniques for writing one line haiku, looking at structure, rhythm and craft.

If you’re interested in:

• one line haiku
• senryū
• English-language haiku technique
• haiku form and structure
• poetry craft discussions
• modern haiku debate

then this episode is for you.

Show notes and links are here.

If you’d like to read along, a slideshow version is available on YouTube.

Keep writing.