Haiku

The haiku is a form of lyric verse that encapsulates a single impression of a natural object or scene. It comprises 17 syllables arranged in three non-rhyming lines of five, seven and five syllables. Pronounced 'high-koo', it originated in Japan in the 16th century and typically includes a seasonal reference.

In Japanese, haikus are traditionally printed as one vertical line, while in English, they're represented as three horizontal lines. Here's an example from 17th-century haiku master Matsuo Basho, translated into English:

Before I was introduced to the magic of contact lenses, I remember standing at a bus stop, waving my left arm while trying to attract the attention of the driver of a large red vehicle. I was informed by my school-friends that I'd been attempting to flag down a fire engine, so my sympathies are with poet Wendy Cope who penned this amusing haiku titled Looking out of the Back Bedroom Window without my Glasses: