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The Haiku

The Haiku is an ancient poetic form, first developed in Japan about four centuries ago. Some scholars suggest it's most popular form of poetry in the world. 

Traditionally, the Haiku requires a very strict form consisting of three lines, with five syllables in the first line seven in the second line and five in the third.

The desire of the Haiku poet is to sense the essence of a moment, deeply felt and universal, and to express that moment within the strict confines of the Haiku form.  It's common to use images of nature to represent the feelings and behaviours of people, have been developed, which, although they modify the traditional form, retain the essential spirit of the Haiku and permit it to be adapted to English and other Western languages.

Modern (and western) forms of the Haiku rarely fit the traditional 5-7-5 pattern, for a number of reasons.  The 5-7-5 pattern was based on the Japanese JION, or syllable-sound.  These rarely match the syllables of English.