Join host Patricia on the Poetry Pea Podcast for a Poetry Pea Salon with award-winning haiku poet Melissa Dennison, reading from her book Caravan: A Trail of Haiku.

Discover the surprising poetic possibilities of snails, from silvery trails in the frost to the frustrations of a gardener. Melissa reads her haiku and discusses the inspiration behind her work, exploring seasonal references (kigo), juxtaposition, word associations and the art of finding poetry in the smallest details.

Patricia and Melissa take a closer look at individual poems, discussing how contrasting seasons can deepen a haiku, how a single word can open up unexpected associations, and how poets can guide readers towards new ways of seeing the world.

Melissa Dennison is a member of the Haiku Foundation’s Re:Virals team and was named among Europe’s top 100 haiku poets in 2025 and 2026.

Whether you write haiku, enjoy reading Japanese short-form poetry, or are simply curious about how everyday observations become memorable poems, this episode offers inspiration and insight into the craft of haiku.

In this episode:

• Melissa Dennison reads from Caravan: A Trail of Haiku
• Writing haiku inspired by snails and the natural world
• Kigo, seasonal contrast and juxtaposition
• Word associations and the layers of meaning in short poetry
• Exploring the poet’s intentions and the reader’s interpretation

Find Caravan: A Trail of Haiku via the link in the show notes.

Listen, enjoy, and perhaps look twice at the next snail trail you see.

The Poetry Pea Podcast celebrates haiku, senryū, tanka, haibun and other forms of short poetry, bringing poets and readers together to explore the craft and joy of writing.

Keep writing. Ciao!

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 Akara’s satirical kyōka set in Yoshiwara, along with tanka by Reid Hepworth, Marion Clarke, Vandana Parashar, Colette Kern, Jenny Shepherd, Tim Cremin, Eve Castle, Ann Curran, Agus Maulana Sunjaya, Mona Bedi, Neena Singh, Joshua St Claire and Sara Winteridge.

Patricia looks at what makes these poems work, including concrete imagery, the movement between external observation and emotional response, juxtaposition, sensory detail and the all-important turn in a tanka.

If you’re writing tanka, kyōka, haiku or other Japanese short-form poetry, there are plenty of ideas here to get you reaching for your pen.

The Poetry Pea tanka and kyōka submission deadline is 15 October, but if you’ve missed this call-out, don’t worry – there will be more opportunities to submit your work to Poetry Pea.

The episode also points listeners towards other journals accepting English-language tanka and kyōka, check out the show notes .

Listen, read, write – and keep writing.

#tanka #kyoka #haiku #JapanesePoetry #shortformpoetry #poetrywriting #PoetryPea

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 fleeting shadows on mountain trails, these haiku capture the many ways poets interpret a single moment.

This episode also features bonus haiku and senryu about flying, wind, kites, sky and the natural world, including work by Swiss poets Gregor Graf, Valeria Barouch and Gerard Krebs.

Whether you write haiku, senryu or simply love short-form poetry, join us for a celebration of poetic observation, imagination and the inspiration we find in the world around us.

In this episode:

• August 2026 Video Prompt, curated by David Cox
• Selected haiku and senryu inspired by paragliding
• Interlaken, the Jungfrau and the Swiss Alps
• Bonus poems about wind, sky, kites and nature
• Haiku by Swiss poets, including Gerard Krebs
• Poetry, travel, and the art of noticing

Enjoying the Poetry Peacast? You can support Poetry Pea by becoming a member, purchasing the Poetry Pea Journal, making a donation, leaving a review, or sharing the podcast with your poetry-loving friends.

Poets featured today:

• Gregor Graf
• Valeria Barouch
• Gerard Krebs
• Ryan Cohen
• Alicia Samson
• Anna Yin
• Tracy Davidson
• Shilan Amir
• Norbert Kovacs
• Paul Callus
• Rohan Buettel
• Jacek Margolak
• Joanna Ashwell
• Kim Klugh
• Tom Bierovic
• Melissa Dennison
• Denisa Hansutova
• Federico C Peralta
• Tony Williams
• Brent Partridge
• Debbie Strange
• Issa
• Taigi
• Kim Russell
• Eavonka Ettinger
• Diana Salusia
• Emil Karla
• Baisali Chatterjee Dutt

Thank you for listening, and as always, keep writing!

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