What we think of as Haiku is the English version of the Japanese poetic form haiku. Haiku in English traditionally consists of seventeen syllables, arranged in three lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables, that refer to nature or the seasons and contain a break that juxtaposes two images.
While you may feel comfortable with this form, English haiku does not correspond directly with its Japanese predecessor, nor does it need to follow these strict guidelines.
A haiku is a picture poem. It is very short, and it uses as few unnecessary words as possible (like all good poetry). For more information on the form of haiku or poets to read, visit
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiku.