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Descended from a Travel-Worn Satchel
Haiku and Haibun by Chris La Tray
featuring art by Clare Carpenter
“I've worn out my body in journeys that are as aimless as the winds and clouds, and expended my feelings on flowers and birds. But somehow I've been able to make a living this way, and so in the end, unskilled and talentless as I am, I give myself wholly to this one concern, poetry.”
— Matsuo Bashō, writing in a letter to a friend.
Praise for Descended from a Travel-worn Satchel
Chris La Tray is skillful in the craft of brevity, as demonstrated in his One-Sentence Journal. In Descended from a Travel-worn Satchel he displays his talent in the art of short-form poetry, through contemporary haiku and haibun. Offering up poetic evidence of the times he inhabits, he secures his place as a descendent of master Bashō.
— Andō, poet, writer and mentor.
The debate rages on whether Matsuo Bashō (d. 1694) — innovator of the haiku and haibun literary forms — was the greatest poet of Japan. In any case, one thing is for certain: he has guided many a poet with his instruction to ‘Follow the Creative’ and inspired many more to take to the road and to cultivate a love of place. One of these far-flung, well-seasoned disciples is none other than Chris La Tray, award-winning Métis poet and writer from Montana.
In Descended From A Travel-Worn Satchel, we are given a deep gift as readers. We are shown, by-example, what it means to be a wakeful-wayfarer; one fully-present to the moment, the road, the lessons of time, history, and the natural world. Through a weave of pithy poems and pull-no-punches travel writing, La Tray embodies the best principles of Bashō, but he does so in a way that is utterly and uniquely his own.
— Frank La Rue Owen, author of The School of Soft-Attention
The noble mantle once belonging to the Zen poet, Matsuo Bashō, and now patched with duct tape, has landed on the broad shoulders of a Métis writer living in western Montana in the early 21st century. Chris La Tray writes about a Cooper's hawk and waft of dry alfalfa, but also of collapsing ice sheets, visiting Indian reservations during the pandemic, and running out of money. With humor, sensitivity, and a clear eye for “what is,” La Tray distills years of close attention, telling a story of four seasons in formally deft haiku and haibun.
Wherever he goes and whatever the object of his interest, “love swells in small things,” resulting in a companionable collection that feels truly timeless in its themes and insights. I’ve shelved Descended from a Travel-Worn Satchel beside its kin, which include Andrew Riutta’s Cigarette Butts and Lilacs and Gary Snyder’s Mountains and Rivers Without End. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and you will, too.
— Holly Wren Spaulding, author of Familiars and other books
This book has “myriad duck butts.” If that's not enough, it also has freshly sharped pencils, old cats, newborn birds, sweet achy loneliness, a little anger, a lot of joy, midnight strolls, garden hoses, and dynamic weather. Hemingway said, Remember to get the damn weather in your book. I say, Remember to get Chris La Tray on your damn bookshelf. His is the art of noticing and appreciating, and his is the work of reminding readers—every single one of us—that we too can be artists in this way.
— Leath Tonino, author of The West Will Swallow You and The Animal One Thousand Miles Long
What kind of moments do you live for? Read Chris La Tray’s collection of haiku, Descended from a Travel-worn Satchel, and you may just find yourself paying closer attention to what arises when you’re honest with yourself about how to answer such a question. Read it not because I’m telling you to, but because as you walk alongside the poet and his observations, the connections he makes, and the wonder he experiences, you may just find yourself tapping into that which fuels your next step forward, or that which reminds you what’s yours to love. Read it because you’ll be all the more ready to pick up your own satchel and continue the journey. I certainly am, and this collection, full of wry humor, poignant reflections, hard truths, and the beauty of ordinary things, will be a companion on the way for years to come.
— Heidi Barr, author of 12 Tiny Things and Cold Spring Hallelujah
Chris La Tray is a Métis writer and storyteller. His first book, One-Sentence Journal: Short Poems and Essays From the World At Large (2018, Riverfeet Press) won the 2018 Montana Book Award and a 2019 High Plains Book Award.
His upcoming book, Becoming Little Shell, will be published by Milkweed Editions in 2022.
Chris is an enrolled member of the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians and lives near Missoula, Montana.
Clare Carpenter owns and operates Tiger Food Press, a one-woman print studio located in Portland, Oregon, between the Willamette and Columbia Rivers, where she produces linocut art prints, block printed textiles, letterpress printe...
featuring art by Clare Carpenter
“I've worn out my body in journeys that are as aimless as the winds and clouds, and expended my feelings on flowers and birds. But somehow I've been able to make a living this way, and so in the end, unskilled and talentless as I am, I give myself wholly to this one concern, poetry.”
— Matsuo Bashō, writing in a letter to a friend.
Praise for Descended from a Travel-worn Satchel
Chris La Tray is skillful in the craft of brevity, as demonstrated in his One-Sentence Journal. In Descended from a Travel-worn Satchel he displays his talent in the art of short-form poetry, through contemporary haiku and haibun. Offering up poetic evidence of the times he inhabits, he secures his place as a descendent of master Bashō.
— Andō, poet, writer and mentor.
The debate rages on whether Matsuo Bashō (d. 1694) — innovator of the haiku and haibun literary forms — was the greatest poet of Japan. In any case, one thing is for certain: he has guided many a poet with his instruction to ‘Follow the Creative’ and inspired many more to take to the road and to cultivate a love of place. One of these far-flung, well-seasoned disciples is none other than Chris La Tray, award-winning Métis poet and writer from Montana.
In Descended From A Travel-Worn Satchel, we are given a deep gift as readers. We are shown, by-example, what it means to be a wakeful-wayfarer; one fully-present to the moment, the road, the lessons of time, history, and the natural world. Through a weave of pithy poems and pull-no-punches travel writing, La Tray embodies the best principles of Bashō, but he does so in a way that is utterly and uniquely his own.
— Frank La Rue Owen, author of The School of Soft-Attention
The noble mantle once belonging to the Zen poet, Matsuo Bashō, and now patched with duct tape, has landed on the broad shoulders of a Métis writer living in western Montana in the early 21st century. Chris La Tray writes about a Cooper's hawk and waft of dry alfalfa, but also of collapsing ice sheets, visiting Indian reservations during the pandemic, and running out of money. With humor, sensitivity, and a clear eye for “what is,” La Tray distills years of close attention, telling a story of four seasons in formally deft haiku and haibun.
Wherever he goes and whatever the object of his interest, “love swells in small things,” resulting in a companionable collection that feels truly timeless in its themes and insights. I’ve shelved Descended from a Travel-Worn Satchel beside its kin, which include Andrew Riutta’s Cigarette Butts and Lilacs and Gary Snyder’s Mountains and Rivers Without End. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and you will, too.
— Holly Wren Spaulding, author of Familiars and other books
This book has “myriad duck butts.” If that's not enough, it also has freshly sharped pencils, old cats, newborn birds, sweet achy loneliness, a little anger, a lot of joy, midnight strolls, garden hoses, and dynamic weather. Hemingway said, Remember to get the damn weather in your book. I say, Remember to get Chris La Tray on your damn bookshelf. His is the art of noticing and appreciating, and his is the work of reminding readers—every single one of us—that we too can be artists in this way.
— Leath Tonino, author of The West Will Swallow You and The Animal One Thousand Miles Long
What kind of moments do you live for? Read Chris La Tray’s collection of haiku, Descended from a Travel-worn Satchel, and you may just find yourself paying closer attention to what arises when you’re honest with yourself about how to answer such a question. Read it not because I’m telling you to, but because as you walk alongside the poet and his observations, the connections he makes, and the wonder he experiences, you may just find yourself tapping into that which fuels your next step forward, or that which reminds you what’s yours to love. Read it because you’ll be all the more ready to pick up your own satchel and continue the journey. I certainly am, and this collection, full of wry humor, poignant reflections, hard truths, and the beauty of ordinary things, will be a companion on the way for years to come.
— Heidi Barr, author of 12 Tiny Things and Cold Spring Hallelujah
Chris La Tray is a Métis writer and storyteller. His first book, One-Sentence Journal: Short Poems and Essays From the World At Large (2018, Riverfeet Press) won the 2018 Montana Book Award and a 2019 High Plains Book Award.
His upcoming book, Becoming Little Shell, will be published by Milkweed Editions in 2022.
Chris is an enrolled member of the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians and lives near Missoula, Montana.
Clare Carpenter owns and operates Tiger Food Press, a one-woman print studio located in Portland, Oregon, between the Willamette and Columbia Rivers, where she produces linocut art prints, block printed textiles, letterpress printe...
- GenresPoetryIndigenous
91 pages, Paperback
Published September 21, 2021
4 people are currently reading
72 people want to read
About the author
Chris LaTray
12 books163 followersChris La Tray is a Métis storyteller, a descendent of the Pembina Band of the mighty Red River of the North and a citizen of the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians.
His third book, Becoming Little Shell: A Landless Indian’s Journey Home, was published by Milkweed Editions on August 20, 2024 and has received a number of accolades including a Pacific Northwest Book Award and a Writing the West Award and Best Memoir of the Year selections from both People and Esquire magazines.
His first book, One-Sentence Journal: Short Poems and Essays from the World at Large won the 2018 Montana Book Award and a 2019 High Plains Book Award. His book of haiku and haibun poetry, Descended from a Travel-worn Satchel, was published in 2021 by Foothills Publishing.
Chris served as the 2025 Kittredge Distinguished Visiting Writer at the University of Montana and was awarded the 2025 Montana Heritage Keeper Award by the Montana Historical Society. Chris writes the weekly newsletter "An Irritable Métis" and lives near Frenchtown, Montana. He was the 11th Montana Poet Laureate, holding that post for 2023–2025.
https://chrislatray.substack.com
His third book, Becoming Little Shell: A Landless Indian’s Journey Home, was published by Milkweed Editions on August 20, 2024 and has received a number of accolades including a Pacific Northwest Book Award and a Writing the West Award and Best Memoir of the Year selections from both People and Esquire magazines.
His first book, One-Sentence Journal: Short Poems and Essays from the World at Large won the 2018 Montana Book Award and a 2019 High Plains Book Award. His book of haiku and haibun poetry, Descended from a Travel-worn Satchel, was published in 2021 by Foothills Publishing.
Chris served as the 2025 Kittredge Distinguished Visiting Writer at the University of Montana and was awarded the 2025 Montana Heritage Keeper Award by the Montana Historical Society. Chris writes the weekly newsletter "An Irritable Métis" and lives near Frenchtown, Montana. He was the 11th Montana Poet Laureate, holding that post for 2023–2025.
https://chrislatray.substack.com
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
October 10, 2021
Reminiscent of La Tray’s debut One Sentence Journal, this collection is rich with stories that don’t need more than a few words, but shine through, resonant and complete, in their distillations. This is not highbrow haiku for the literary elite, but accessible poetry for the rest of us. Which isn’t to say it’s simple or unskilled—it isn’t—but rather so grounded, so relatable, and so true that the words reach through the page straight to a reader’s mind and heart, almost as if they are our own evocative ruminations. As with the best books, this is one to keep in your own satchel: a comfort, a practice, a friend.
October 12, 2021
A lovely collection of haikus and haibuns by Chris La Tray of Montana. I devoured this poetry in one setting. Oh, and let me say how pleased I was when I pulled the book from its envelope & saw how beautifully made it is. It is beautifully designed and bound with a black cord. It's lovely inside and out.
September 27, 2021
"Our lives are but pollen to them, scattered on the breeze, flashing briefly if caught in a sunbeam, then gone to the making of more, always more, of us."
I first met Chris in a Montana Writers class at UM. I had no idea what to expect. I had read the assigned reading of his 3 hours prior to class, partly out of procrastination, and partly to keep it fresh in my head. I liked that he was honest to a class of undergrads, honest about his writing, our writing, our questions about writing, and his approach. I was hooked, to say the very least. Chris was kind and excited about how many questions we had for him. And, he read his own work like he had just written it that very second. The emotion, the break in parts of his voice while talking about his dad, or his dogs; the reading reminded me of why I wanted to write in the first place.
His second book is welcoming. The artistry of haiku and haibun are friendly, and I wish more professors taught their simple yet engulfing form. I devoured this book in two hours, and I have plans to sit with it again this evening. We should all be so lucky to take the time as Chris has done to observe our surroundings.
I first met Chris in a Montana Writers class at UM. I had no idea what to expect. I had read the assigned reading of his 3 hours prior to class, partly out of procrastination, and partly to keep it fresh in my head. I liked that he was honest to a class of undergrads, honest about his writing, our writing, our questions about writing, and his approach. I was hooked, to say the very least. Chris was kind and excited about how many questions we had for him. And, he read his own work like he had just written it that very second. The emotion, the break in parts of his voice while talking about his dad, or his dogs; the reading reminded me of why I wanted to write in the first place.
His second book is welcoming. The artistry of haiku and haibun are friendly, and I wish more professors taught their simple yet engulfing form. I devoured this book in two hours, and I have plans to sit with it again this evening. We should all be so lucky to take the time as Chris has done to observe our surroundings.
October 4, 2023
Look no further for some of the best haiku being written today. As always, Chris La Tray collects moments in time, scraps of life, and pins them to the page like butterflies. I love how La Tray can walk into a clearing in the woods, hold his breath, open his eyes, cock his head and bend his knees to settle close to the ground, close to the earth, close to our original Mother, and then patiently transcribes the message. Want to hold wild delicate flashes of Nature in your hands like a fluttering bird? Open this book.
March 18, 2025
“radiant flowers / race the staggering heart / of this old poet”
- the river trail, #191, June, 2020
“with sharpened pencil / the poet readies his wit / heels cracked from pacing”
- my room, #233, August, 2020
i would recommend this book to readers who would love to see a genuine, heart-felt application of the Haiku & Haibun forms of poetry to modern american life (Indigenous POV, Montana setting). this book is best read… “Spare and compact poems are best consumed slowly, thoughtfully, just like the Buddhist tradition they sprang from, snapshots—bird tracks on snow.” — from the Preface by Mark Gibbons
Click here to read my full review of DESCENDED FROM A TRAVEL-WORN SATCHEL complete with my full thoughts, further reading suggestions, & more of my favorite quotes, notes, & annotations!
★ ★ ★ ★ .75
CW // cov*d pandem*c, racist/colonialist structures, grief, & death (of humans & animals)
November 19, 2021
love the way he looks at the world
November 20, 2022
Great writing made all the better by the familiarity I have with some of the locations mentioned.
December 30, 2022
I love the premise of this book. It’s inspiring to witness the beauty that can emanate from a single haiku capturing a moment in time.
June 28, 2024
A book of poetry and short prose that’s equal parts funny and sad, touching and devastating. I don’t read as much poetry as I’d like, but this is definitely one of my top 10 poetry books now.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews