The Chicken Haiku poems incorporate traditional haiku elements with a playful twist. Each haiku captures a moment in time—from droll to wistful, revelatory to whimsical. The illustrations—pencil, watercolor, collage—contain clever, layered details that lend to the reading of the poem.
Matrons take a break
from egg-laying duty—
morning kaffeeklatsch.
This is one of the few poems where Dawn created the art first and then I wrote the poem to go with it. Look at that red and the fruity kitchen “wallpaper”—how could it not be a kaffeeklatsch? —Karin
Downy brood
in a warm milieu—
as if on cue, we coo.
If you’ve ever seen a mess of chicks in a brooder box (where they keep warm until they’re big enough to go outside), you know how cute they are! It’s almost impossible not to coo at them… —Karin
Three hens huddle
underneath the dripping roost—
stones in a puddle.
Our hens’ coop is an A-frame with the top half being the roost and nest boxes and the bottom half simply screened in. When it rains, we sometimes cover the coop with a tarp, but other times the chickens just sit under the roost trying to keep dry, saying, “Bored, Chickenmama. Bored.” —Karin
Scratch, scratch, scratch,
digging for gold flecks—
when do dreams hatch?
Scratch is a combination of cracked or whole grains given to chickens as a treat. Throwing it on the ground encourages their natural foraging behavior (digging for seeds and insects and such). However, this haiku was originally written for my college BFF on the occasion of a new entrepreneurial adventure—looking for a different type of scratch. —Karin
I didn’t know I needed a Chicken Haiku book so much!
– Reader email