From Wikipedia: In contrast to English verse which is typically characterized by meter, Japanese verse counts sound units (morae), known as "on". The word on is often translated as "syllable", but there are subtle differences between an "on" and an English-language "syllable". Traditional haiku consist of 17 on, in three metrical phrases of 5, 7, and 5 on respectively.
The word onji (音字; "sound symbol") is sometimes used in referring to Japanese sound units in English[5] although this word is archaic and no longer current in Japanese.[6] In Japanese, the onkana character count (closely enough that moji (or "character symbol") is also sometimes used[6] as the count unit). corresponds very closely to the
One on is counted for a short syllable, an additional one for an elongated vowel, diphthong, or doubled consonant, and one for an "n" at the end of a syllable. Thus, the word "haibun", though two syllables in English, is counted as four on in Japanese (ha-i-bu-n).
Most writers of literary haiku in English use about ten to fourteen syllables, with no formal pattern.
I have been reading in a book about Haiku and they suggest that English language Haiku can mimic the Japanese Haiku by having an accented pattern of 2, 3, 2.So......... here goes.
Squinting eyes
Six toothed grin
We laugh
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