Mar 22, 2012 -- 12:15AM, Heretic_for_Christ wrote:

I thought the rhythm pattern was supposed to be 5 - 7 - 5.

Yes, haiku in Japanese have traditionally been written in so-called "syllables" of 5 - 7- 5, but contemporary haiku written in English do not have to preserve this pattern (mostly because Japanese haiku translated into English usually cannot preserve this 5 - 7- 5 pattern). And if one wants to get really technical, traditional haiku need all of the following, in addition to a 5 - 7- 5 pattern (and though this pattern in English is often represented in three horizontal lines, Japanese haiku are traditionally written in one vertical line):

Kigo - a seasonal word (usually from the natural world rather than from the human-centered civilized world) that identifies the season mentioned in the haiku.

Kiru - The cutting which divides haiku into two parts through what Carmen Sterba terms "the contrast of two images," sometimes represented in Japanese by a cutting word (kireji) that in English translations is often replaced by punctuation such as a dash, a comma, or an ellipsis. 

Haiku are also accompanied by haiga, paintings that illustrate the haiku. Finally, because of the Zen Buddhist nature of haiku, haiku should not include violent imagery or violent descriptions, should focus on nature, and should not be overly philosophical or theoretical. 

Americans who write haiku generally dispense with virtually all of these traditional aspects of haiku, and apparently (at least some) post-World War II Japanese poets who write gendai haiku (modern haiku) have also dispensed with many of the formal aspects, though keep the concept of cutting, which they consider more essential than the 5 -7 - 5 pattern. (As Uda Kiyoko, the President of the Japanese Modern Haiku Association, states: "the essence of haiku is 'cutting,' in my opinion.")

But anyway... Here is my contemporary English haiku:

"My God, my God, why --
why have you forsaken me?" -- 
God no Trinity. 

Mar 22, 2012 -- 12:15AM, Heretic_for_Christ wrote:

I thought the rhythm pattern was supposed to be 5 - 7 - 5.

Before costrel have posted his explanation, I had composed:

Oddly enough

the rules for haiku are not

stone set (true story)

But, of course the longer explantion is more robust.

Mar 22, 2012 -- 11:15AM, dio wrote:

On a still morning,

Improbable marvelous,

I am here and now.

Now that is really lovely.

Mar 22, 2012 -- 12:56PM, MMarcoe wrote:

My personal ode to Helen Mirren:

The lines of the years
sculpt her flesh with tales of life.
To love them, divine.

Another lovely work, bespeaking great perception of beauty. It reminds me of the Shakespearean sonnet that begins "That time of year thou mayst in me behold..."

VACATION HAIKU:

To my friends and foes:

I'm going off to repose.

Then? God only knows.