HAIBUN
by: Monica Dierken

Rain forest
tree tops
Monkeys swing around

I walked into a forest. It got very quiet, then all the animals looked up at me. They all started screaming and jumping. I couldn’t tell if they were mad or curiously happy. I walked over to a little stream;

shallow water
animals drinking
slowly moving, almost
just sitting there

I walked over to a big tree. The monkeys swinging around started to stop and stare. They slowly started to move down the tree. Trying to be aware. They looked mad at me. Like I had interrupted their play.

Busy forest
animals
dancing.

Getting on the bus
big bag in hand
finding my spot.

Big noisy bus with lots of kids all waiting to get to Discovery. Bored out of my mind as we go up the steep hill. The bus is rampling and roaring to get up the hill.

At the top
looking down
With queasy feelings.

Yeah!! We’re there. We get off the bus into groups. We get on our boots, skis and ski poles. Up to the top of the mountain.

Skiing down the mountain
Air rushing at my face
a moment of fear but it all goes away.

Rugged mountains
open desert
shining stars, so bright

During my trip to California the rugged mountains stood tall as we drove past them. The warm breeze flew around me when I opened the window. Driving through the open desert, there were giant rocks, cracked, dry, earth, there were open blue skies and at night they would fill with shining stars, so bright.

Goodnight, desert
Hoot, hoot
Running coyotes across the desert floor.

HAIBUN
by: Mitchell Hall

GRAND CANYON

Boyscouts in an old bus work their way from Rosaur’s in Missoula in the dead of summer to the Grand Canyon. In the back we watch the tv’s stationed throughout the bus, only getting to watch about 30 seconds of the show before we hit a bump and disk skips.

Old big coach bus
very very hot
NO air conditioning

We arrive at our camping area at 9:00 at night with a half-hour to set up camp and get a good night’s sleep before the 13 mile hike down the canyon. So nice and cool watching the rocks and sand change color as the sun hits them at different angles.

So very nice
until about noon
then it’s a microwave
in a big hole with no
way out.

For the next 2 days we hike 17 miles it is hot and painful. Water is warm, food is gross. Sleeping bags are filled with dirt. Sunscreen runs out. Oh joy we get to climb 106 switch backs at leas fifty yards long.

As much as
I don’t like it
school doesn’t
sound so bad.

The stone quivers as
a young colt runs blindly
through the cold spring morn.

A cougar’s piercing cry causes the horses to run in fear. The rocks tremble as the hooves graze them. The cougar appears and begins to laugh. A child stands in it’s place, alone.

A long scream
terrifies the forest.
Then giggles triumphantly.

As he walks home, the child smiles happily. He looks at the still petrified horses and feels a twinge of guilt. Then in the blink of an eye, he is gone.

A ghost mounts upon its steed
He rides away
Into the silver clouds.

The sky’s magic casts a long beam of light upon the prancing horses and their fear is calmed. The cougar is gone, for now.

Tiger, Tiger
burning bright
In the forest of the night.

SNOWFOOTBALL

Half the kids at lunch decide to pace the field. The other half either jumps rope or plays football.

The quarterback shouts
kids go running down the field
but none catch the ball.

Everyone’s hands are numb with cold and no one can manage to get a grip on the football as it flies through the air on the fourth down it gets fumbled again.

Possession switches
kids crunch and slide down the field
For once they catch a pass.

One team laughs and high-fives each other. The other groans. But no one is keeping track of the score anyway.

The ball is passed
Someone catches it and runs
Sideways across the field.

The other team yells “out of bounds”, but the other yells “touchdown!”

A teacher whistles
Everyone grabs their coats
And heads back inside.

No one really cares who won anyway. They’re just glad to be where it’s
warm:
inside.

THE WRECK OF THE EDMUND FITZGERALD

My family and I took a vacation over to Michigan. The reason we were going there was to get a new camper that we purchased from Lakeshore RV. As we were driving there, we passed through many states.

From Montana:
South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
On to Michigan’s northern-most peninsula.

We stopped and looked at many different lighthouses. Whitefish point has to be my favorite one. I loved the vacation, but the thing that caught my attention most would have to be the wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald.

Lake Superior
One stormy November night,
it sunk.

I don’t remember much. Ore it was carrying, but to this day, it still amazes me how much. A lot. The Edmund Fitzgerald was caught in a November storm because Superior always has nasty storms in November.

In the storm
all of the ship’s crew were lost.
Down went the thousands of pounds of ore.

I think that the reason my dad likes the song by Gordon Lightfoot so much is because it tells the story of the Edmund Fitzgerald so well. I have to say that I’m with him on that. The song is awesome.

As ships still carry ore,
Superior rages on over the ruins.
Superior and the outrageous November storms!

Nosing along
the surface is clear
to you, a bird.

The fish is peaceful in the cool summer water. His friends are swimming with him around and around. Watching for nets and hooks and birds. Once the fish was caught by a hook. The fisher threw him back. Uh-oh, here comes a bird, nosing down to the bottom so as not to get eaten, fishermen are often kind but birds show no mercy.

There is one,
shiny and slippery
the bird likes.

It sees the fish is diving lower, down to the sand. Might as well go find something in the park. Oh look! It’s a doughnut! You know why they call ‘em doughnuts? Because before they were invented we do not eat them. Technically it would be we did not eat them. Snatch! It’s gone.

I wake up that month the same time every day.

Excited, another
day of work
something I enjoy so much

The sun was just coming up. We were headed off to the ranch.

The bright light
glistening of the morning dew
making the grass shine

It was mid-July, haying season, and I was driving the semi loaded with hay out in the fields.

Stacked high
the five-foot tall bales
casting a larger shadow.

It was only first cutting so I would do this all over again come second cutting, only with square bales not round bales.

Stacked in a pyramid
three bales wide at the bottom
the bales wouldn’t be fed
to the cows until winter came.

HAIBUN
By: Travis Wood

A dog walking
his face hurts
in pain.

Dog walks through the forest with leaves hitting his face with birds in the sky so high up in the sky the god hurts in pain.

HAIBUN
by: Jordan Lutz

I went hunting up in the mountains with my dad.

Squirrels, chirping
birds peeping
sharp eye

We heard gun shots so we sat on the ridge.

Waiting silently
elk running
big bugle

There was a bull elk chasing a cow elk at full speed.

Too fast
gone for every
record bull

29750 Potomac Road
Bonner, Montana 59823
http:www.blackfoot.net/~potomacschool

Phone: 406-244-5581
Fax: 406-244-5840