Pondering a Haiku

In its Western form, generally, it's a seventeen syllable poem with its lines conforming to five syllables for the first line, seven for the second, and five for the third. Why? Who the hell really knows.

There are nuances: nature, a last line that either brings the first two lines together or maybe goes elsewhere but still has somethng to do with the first two lines.

I wonder about short, literary things. They take less time to compose and they are more easily digestible than the forms that require a lot of words. Anybody know the differences?