ABSTRACT
I’d venture to guess that no poetic form is at once so widely admired and so little understood as haiku. The brevity seems to invite imitation—as if being short should make it easy to do. And the minimalist form lends itself in popular imagination to corny imitation. But even when taken seriously, the seventeen syllable, five-seven-five, arrangement of lines, which has an organic relevance in Japanese (having to do with Japanese writing, speaking and even breathing patterns), has little meaning or relevance in English.
