What kind of poetry is haiku?

A haiku is a Japanese poem!

• One of the most important form of traditional Japanese poetry haiku is, today, a 17-syllable verse form consisting of three metrical units of 5, 7, and 5 syllables.
• There has been confusion between the three related terms Haiku, Hokku and Haikai, since early days.
• Hokku literally means "starting verse", and was the first starting link of a much longer chain of verses known as haika.
• Because the hokku set the tone for the rest of the poetic chain, it enjoyed a privileged position in haikaipoetry, and it was not uncommon for a poet to compose a hokku by itself without following up with the rest of the chain.

The creation of the term haiku came about largely through the efforts of Masaoka Shiki, who began a reform of this style of poetry in 1892 after which it became established as a new form to be written, read and understood as an independent poem, complete in itself, rather than part of a longer chain.

In the perspective of the history of haikai the famous verses of such Edo-period (1600-1868) masters as Basho,Yosa Buson, and Kobayashi Issa are properly referred to as hokku even though they are now generally read as independent haiku.

The terms Classical Haiku and Modern Haiku are used to distinguish between hokku and haiku.

Shiki's reform did not change two traditional elements of haiku:

• the division of 17 syllables into three groups of 5, 7, and 5 syllables.
• the inclusion of a seasonal theme.

Shiki's reform was carried further with two proposals by Kawahigashi Hekigoto:

• Haiku would be truer to reality if there were no center of interest in it.
• The importance of the poet's first impression, just as it was, of subjects taken from daily life, and of local colour to create freshness.

Example:

Haikus are like this:

five, seven, five syllables

nature images
first line 5 syllables

second line 7 syllables

third line 5 syllables

A Haiku is an unrhyming verse form, conveying a complete image or feeling in three lines of syllables, and are usually about nature or natural things.

You can really make these poems about anything that you like. The Japanese most of the time make them about seasons of the year.

A Haiku poem is a Japanese poetry form with the first line with 5 syllables and the second with 7 syllables and the third with 5 syllables.