What is Haiku?

Haiku is a form of Japanese poetry, dating from the 19th century. A traditional haiku consists three lines of approximately 5, 7, and 5 phonetic units which generally correspond to the syllables of English. In our Haicooo, we don't even attempt to follow the elaborate rules of Haiku. We just use the basic form to tell little stories to little folk. For more information on real haiku, click here. Now, what is Haicooo? Haicooo are little haiku poems just for children! All haicooo poems have an accompanying drawing of a sweet animal to help develop a child's love of nature, art and poetry. It has long been my philosophy that a child who learns to love animals and treat them with kindness will be a child who shows empathy for other children as well. I also believe that they will grow into more caring and responsible adults. We can all learn a lot from animals as well as children! Eweness gets lonesome So she likes it in her flock Where she has good friends Eweness Loves Haiku For Children!

Frosty

Frosty's* nose is cold So she cuddles up with me Now we both are warm

*Frosty was already an elderdog when she came to live with the Armstrong family. She is gone now, but her joy and love live on.

Frosty was the inspiration for the first Haicooo poem that was written. She was our dog... although she was never officially our dog. She came to us from a shelter where her family has abandoned her at 12+ years of age...they were moving and couldn't keep her. No one wanted her. We certainly didn't need another dog, but we work with a husky rescue and it is up to us to help the ones that no one else wants. So we brought her home. From the moment she walked in the house, she knew she was staying! We kept saying "she's a foster dog", but she knew she was staying! Frosty lived with us for over two years until left us at 15. She was never officially adopted, but she was never anything but OUR dog!

Welcome!

Haicooo: Little Poems for Children is the first in a series of children's books written by Forrest Greenslade and illustrated by Kathryn Armstrong.

Haicooo: Little Poems for Children is the creation of Kathryn Armstrong and her father Forrest Greenslade. Kathryn is a communications designer and artist. Forrest is a writer and sculptor. Kathryn was creating a series of animal illustrations for a hospital pediatrics department, when Forrest just couldn't help himself and jotted down a silly haiku about one of them. Father and daughter agreed that this would be a great way to introduce children to the joy of poetry. Incidentally, Kathryn had a nearly one-year old daughter (Nicole Alexandra) at the time.

"We hope that parents, grand parents and friends will show these pictures and read these poems to small children, and use them to initiate a life-long engagement for kids with art and poetry. Hopefully, older children will read them themselves, and even write poems of their own. Please feel free to copy and share them with friends and family."

Proceeds from the sale of Haicooo benefit the NICU at Lehigh Valley Hospital. You can buy our Haicooo book at LuLu.com.

Stop back often to see new poems and to preview Haicooo Goes to the Zooo.