A Haiku poem is a type of poetry that originated in 17th century Japan. Haiku poems follow strict rules. Each poem must have three lines with seventeen syllables in total, arranged in a pattern of 5-7-5. The first line consists of 5 syllables, the second line consists of 7 syllables and the last line consists of another 5 syllables.
Haiku is often written in the present tense and focused on the associations between mental images, especially those related to nature. There is also a pause at the end of the first or second line. In Japanese, the pause is shown with a ‘Kireji’ word, or a type of Japanese word traditionally used in poetry to signify a pause. In English, the pause may be shown with a dash or an ellipse, since there are no English translations for kireji words. Because of the fundamental differences between the character-based Japanese and the letter-based English languages, the syllable count rarely survives in the translations.