Haiku is Japanese poetry dating to the 13th century. It's main characteristics are the fact that it is made up of only seventeen syllables contained in three lines. The first line contains five syllables, the second line has seven and the third line has five syllables. All of the poems on these pages are not haiku. Some are Tanka which are 31 syllables, 5,7,5,7,and 7 syllables. Haiku attempts to capture a moment and render in accurately in 17 syllables. Almost all haiku make direct references to some aspect of nature.
The silence of haiku, the wordlessness of haiku, has it's roots in Buddhism, especially in Zen, which taught people to stand aside and leave the meaning -making of the ego to it's own devices. Not resisting it, but seeing it as another phenomenal thing, like bush warblers and snowfall.
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