What’s a Haiku?
Haiku, as most often practiced in English-speaking circles, is a form of poetry in which each poem consists of only three lines. Three short lines.
The first line must be five syllables long. No more, no less. The second line is seven syllables long. The third line finishes the poem with another five syllables. Writing a haiku can be a very fast, or a very slow experience. Some experienced writers will continuously refine their composition, working to find just the right combination of words to convey their meaning.
On Haikoo.org, however, things operate a little differently.
Instead of having a single author, each poem has three contributors. The first contributor is the person that starts the haiku, writing the first five syllable line. The next person, who is presented the unfinished haiku at random, writes the second line. Finally, the still-unfinished haiku is presented to a third person for a last line.
Since they break a few subtleties of the rules of haiku, poems written on the site are instead referred to as “haikoos”. Since we’re breaking rules in a subtle way, the name change can be subtle too!
For more reading, check out this very informative Wikipedia article on Haiku.