Quote Originally Posted by TogakureOjonin
A couple of weeks ago I bought my first book on Haiku history/composition. I've been dabbling with haiku for years, but never really understood it beyond the 5-7-5 thing mentioned earlier here (btw: the Japanese sense of rhythm in speech doesn't equate to syllables per se, so strict 5-7-5 is not required).

Very simply put: Capture an experience in words, with the intent of conveying to a reader what you were feeling. Haiku is not an "intellectual" exercise, not simply a clever play on words.

I wrote this one quite some time ago when I was very darkly depressed. I looked in on my beloved goddaughter sleeping late at night, and I felt better for a brief moment:

Breath, rising, falling
at play in a field of dreams
candle in the night

(btw: a "good" haiku requires no explanation)

This one expresses a very different experience/emotion:

Vile satisfaction
as hopeless eyes surrender
the Light of Life fades

These are just wannabe haikus, but better than most of the others I've written in the past. Perhaps in time I'll find a groove.
Wonderful haiku, their better than anything I've ever written. I've been writing haiku for about two years, when I first started I did it as a project for a high school class, eventually it evolved to the point where a friend and I began doing haiku battles for the entertainment of our classmates.

Staring into nothing
Despair penetrates the soul
Hells fury awaits