why are these not 5-7-5?
when most of us come across haiku for the first time, likely in grade school, we’re taught that a traditional haiku poem is made up a few distinctive elements: the 5-7-5 syllable pattern, a kigo (a word or phrase associated with a particular season), and often a ‘turn’ or a shift in the poem.
however, as the legendary haiku poet and total weeb Edith Shiffert once wrote,
“Haiku poets, as all poets, should feel free to use the haiku in whatever way seems appropriate to their creativity. There never were any rules, just fashions and preferences. To be somewhere and write about it, that is what haiku is."
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