Midnight sky gazing:
-----------------moontears
fill my eyes with stars

Where are the 7 syllables in line 2?

 ;)

Syllables in English or Onji (sound) in Japanese
actually have a different duration. To capture the Rhythm of
 Japanese Haiku--an English Haiku should have about 12 syllables.
What is more important than the 5-7-5 myth is-accented syllables.
7 accented syllables--are the norm for Haiku in English..

Kerouac was a wonderful innovator in Haiku.
Maybe the best Amercan Haiku poet.
He bent the rules continuously in wonderful ways.

one of my favorites: from Jack
Praying all the time---
     talking
to myself

Thanks very much for the detailed explanation. Now, let's see some more of your haiku.

 ;)

it's good to hear others dispel the 5-7-5 myth!  It's not the syllables that are important in haiku, it's the gesture.

The gesture? What does that mean?

Are you following me, Bruce?

Gesture is a painter's term.  It's the intent, but not quite.  Where intent is more purpose driven, gesture is more emotion driven.  Intent is the hand that rocks the cradle, gesture is the heart that moves the hand to rock the cradle.

How's that?

It's great to see some people, grasping the disipline of Haiku.

Gesture is a great explaination of what Haiku should be.(Thanks Eric) Meaning that by reading your haiku, the reader should be able to feel your conection to the subject of your poem. .
Counting syllables is not the way to teach Haiku.
I know this sounds new age like--but it is what I look for in any Haiku, Tanka, Renga, Haiga, that I read.

I like the immediacy of this, but think midnight skies gaze would work better, with an and before moontears,
I don't care about the rules.
Mike