If roosters don't crow, it is still morning: haiku and other poems

Haiku has emerged as one of the most popular poetic forms of the 20th & 21st centuries. The form, with its brevity and pinpoint illumination of the spiritual, appeals to a contemporary audience that yearns for meaning in a chaotic and rushed world. In some ways, haiku dovetails with some aspects of Post-Modernism, in its capacity to reveal telling moments and express spiritual loneliness. Many poets including Alan Watts, Robert Hass and Jack Kerouac wrote haiku and were influenced by them. Haiku societies exist in almost every country, and there are many books, journals and websites devoted to the art of writing haiku. Some practitioners remain loyal to the traditional Japanese format of 17 syllables, but others, especially English-speaking poets have taken the form into new directions, adapting it to the English language and allowing the use of non-natural images common to modern life.