plural haiku or haikus
: an unrhymed verse form of Japanese origin having in English three lines containing usually five, seven, and five syllables respectively
… with the declaration of war, I was not sure what the coming spring portended. So two weeks after Pearl Harbor, I wrote in haiku: Beyond mind's torment, / Reach out and grasp a sprig of / The flowering quince.—Toyo Suyemoto
also
: a poem in this form usually having a seasonal reference
I translate haiku in one line because most Japanese haiku writers, both standard and nonstandard, treat it as a one-line form and adjust its prosody accordingly. … It has long been a tradition to present haiku in non-Japanese languages as tercets… —Hiroaki Sato
[Tonya Foster] does not write fully traditional haiku (free-standing, improvisational, about the seasons). —Stephanie Burt
Jacob Harris, senior software architect at The New York Times, has developed an algorithm to find accidental haikus in the paper, from the mundane: "The one thing to be / careful about is trimming / the broccoli rabe," to the poetic: "The buzzing of a / thousand bees in the tiny / curled pearl of an ear." —Annalisa Quinn
compare tanka
Note: A haiku is an unrhymed Japanese poetic form that in English usually consists of 17 syllables arranged in three lines containing five, seven, and five syllables, respectively. A haiku expresses much and suggests more in just a few words. The form first emerged in Japanese literature in the 17th century (though it did not become known by the name haiku until the 19th century) when Bashō, a Japanese poet considered by many to be the greatest practitioner of the form, elevated it to a highly refined art. A poem written in the haiku form or a modification of it in a language other than Japanese is also called a haiku. The Imagist poets of the early 20th century helped popularize the form in English.
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Merriam-Webster unabridged
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