A haiku from the book Shogun.

[Swede]

What are clouds
But an excuse for the sky?
What is life
But an escape from death?

[msanthrope]

1. That's not a haiku. n/t

[Aristus]

2. Yeah, the poem in question was not presented as a haiku. Just a death poem.

The confusion arises in the style, which is a typically brief, fragile poem common to Japanese culture. But it's not a haiku, the style of which follows a three-line, five syllable-seven syllable-five syllable meter.

[AsahinaKimi]

3. Here is my favorite "death poem"

Mostly because it has come from an ancestor..

"Holding forth this sword I cut vacuity in twain; In the midst of the great fire, a stream of refreshing breeze!"- - Shiaku Nyudo, Samurai 1333 ad