Haiku…the soul of brevity, the brevity of soul

Haiku is a brief poem. It is succinct and a snapshot of an experience. One of the good things about writing haiku poetry is what that brevity requires. It requires the poet to take an image received from either experience or from imagination, and cut away all things extraneous. It is like a sculptor cutting away all the clay that is not the piece and what you have left is entirely the piece of art. It teaches poets to be precise.
James Downs - USA