Carpe Diem Tan Renga Squared, Björn Rudberg's "Loon is calling"

The task in this Tan Renga challenge is to turn a haiku into four stanzas. In this case here an atmospheric haiku by Bjorn Rudberg that really reaches and tugs in a moody feeling. Accordingly the stanzas are added in order to form a cooperative Tan Renga.

evening mist

memories are fading

loon is calling

I am far from the river

but the river is not far from me

what is it 

that this haunting sound wants from me

when I am so lost?

my hands tremble, I raise my gun

for a shot must be fired for a kill

Carpe Diem: Cemetery

That unforgettable opening...

under a full moon
black silhouette caws on a cross
what, no worms for you raven?

Carpe Diem Special, Francis of Assisi's first quote

the trees give the shade

the rock gives a seat

the sun fills my Lappland cup

Friday Fictioneers: Huh, Aah, Uh Uh

"Uh"
"Aiiia," she said, pointing at the flames, still crackling, still going strong, and cackled a laugh: "aha, aha, a, ha ha!"
She clapped her paws, her hands, together, echoing around the cave.
"Heh!" said her partner. He turned around and bent over, singing his backside at the top of the flames. "Aiii!" he said, setting off another cackle from his partner.

They sat and stared.

She took a stick and thread some large intestines of the recently slain mammoth through it, and plunged it into the fire, watching it cook rapidly, in spits and sighs.
"Mmmm!" she said, rubbing her belly and sniffing the air, "Ho' dug!"
Not to be outdone, her partner dipped a stick into a hole filled with a mass of gooey leftover and real spit.
"Mmmash!" he grunted happily: "mmmashma'lluh," he said. "Mmaan."

For the one and only... at Friday Fictioneers, picture by Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

Carpe Diem, "Honour the Little Creatures"

Ah if only you knew the hard work that goes into maintaining a forest! Except that it is not a one-way system, of course, the forest also maintains the little creatures in return, and in fact, they are the forest, too, as is the wind, brushing the leaves.

All that work, day in, day out, as for night, well, the bees may rest after the sun goes down but there are others, plenty others who take over, silently, diligently, the ants that clean the paths of leaves, living in their giant mounds of pine needles, and the wasps, who start early and keep the bugs at bay, for not all work to conserve; some seem to exist only so that many work to conserve. And all for free! Not one cent exchanges hands.

Perhaps, there is another hidden currency, in their diligence and duty, a mystery we have not yet learnt enough about.

the peaceful forest-

more busy than a hectic city

yet so quiet to my ears