http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haikuwikipedia.org wrote:
Haiku (俳句 haikai verse?) listen (help·info), plural haiku, is a form of Japanese poetry, consisting of 17 moras (or on), in three phrases of 5, 7, and 5 moras respectively.[1] Although haiku are often stated to have 17 syllables,[2] this is inaccurate as syllables and moras are not the same. Haiku typically contain a kigo (seasonal reference), and a kireji (cutting word).[3] In Japanese, haiku are traditionally printed in a single vertical line and tend to take aspects of the natural world as their subject matter, while haiku in English often appear in three lines to parallel the three phrases of Japanese haiku and may deal with any subject matter.[4] Previously called hokku, haiku was given its current name by the Japanese writer Masaoka Shiki at the end of the 19th century.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiku_in_EnglishWikipedia.org wrote:
Haiku in English is a development of the Japanese haiku poetic form in the English language.
Contemporary haiku are written in many languages, but most poets outside of Japan are concentrated in the English-speaking countries.
It is impossible to single out any current style, format, or subject matter as definitive. Some of the more common practices in English include:
Use of three lines of up to 17 syllables;
Use of a season word (kigo);
Use of a cut or kire (sometimes indicated by a punctuation mark) to compare two images implicitly.
English haiku do not adhere to the strict syllable count found in Japanese haiku,[1] and the typical length of haiku appearing in the main English-language journals is 10–14 syllables.[2][3] Some haiku poets are concerned with their haiku being expressed in one breath[4][5][6] and the extent to which their haiku focus on "showing" as opposed to "telling".[7][8] This is the genius of haiku using an economy of words to paint a multi-tiered painting, without "telling all".[9] Or as Matsuo Bashō puts it, "The haiku that reveals seventy to eighty percent of its subject is good. Those that reveal fifty to sixty percent, we never tire of."[10]