Surprised me
Not for his darkness
Nor for his pain and scars
He is a shadow
That is his essence
It surprised me
That I admired him
For his perseverance
For his tenacity
For his will to exist
For his endurance
I realised
No matter how bright
The light in me burns
I am incomplete
Without my shadow
I realised
I only loved the half of me
If I could not love
The half of me
That is darkness
My gratitude is boundless
For the shadow who endured
The pain of this existence
So our light could shine
So brightly
Ming Sha Shan
The Mountains of Singing Sands
Dunhuang
Gansu Province, The People’s Republic of China
Taken during travels, 1998
The Pic and a Word Challenge is a weekly creativity prompt offered Sunday mornings.
Each week I provide a photograph of mine along with a single word. The challenge? Use the pic and/or word as points of inspiration to create something — a photograph, a painting, prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction, longread or just a few words. You are welcome to use these two elements (photograph and word) literally, thematically or metaphorically. If you create both images and words, all the better.
To participate:
- Use any title you like
- Your response can be words and/or an image
- You may use my image in your post, or any image you have created
- Place the challenge’s Pic (if you use it for inspiration) and Word prominently in your post
- Mention that you are responding to the Pic and a Word Challenge
- Add a link to this post in your response
To help us find your response, you can also:
- Add a comment on this post to announce your response
- Apply the tag “Pic and a Word Challenge” to your post
Each week, I’ll list the previous week’s responses at the end of the new challenge. I may also share some on my social media: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, etc.
The word for last week’s Pic and a Word Challenge #50 was Guardians, along with this photograph of twin sandstone monoliths in Canyonlands National Park, Utah, USA.
Two standout responses this week. Thank you! =)
View all the Pic and a Word Challenges on the Pic and a Word Challenge tag page.