Fujifilm X-T2, Poetry, Street Photography, Travelogue
by Patrick Jennings

Movement ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #85

Gnat, Indian Airforce Recruitment Center, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India copy
In a world
Flattened and stilled
My taxi crawls
Toward a fogged-in airport
Flights delayed

Forward progress
Intermittent

Passing
Ill-advised

Headlights
And grey hulks
Emerge from the dense fog
Into which the endless line
Of trucks, taxis and tuk-tuks
Standing between departure and I
Disappears with finality
Into the grey
Just three trucks ahead

Stopped, again

A fighter jet hangs
Suspended
In time and space
Backdropped by
A poster
Promising
Altitude and speed
While the gateway
Commands
“Touch the sky
With glory”

But I
And the jet
Are enveloped
So that the sky
Touches us
With somber
Dejection

And the world
Seems not
To move
At all

Gnat Fighter
Air Force Recruitment Center
Varanasi
Uttar Pradesh, India

Taken during travels, 2017

Thanks goes to Dancing Echoes for suggesting this week’s challenge word.

This week’s challenge responds to a few others:

Last week we found Emptiness. This week? Let’s set things in motion with Movement or find something else to inspire your creativity in this photograph of suspended movement in Varanasi, India.

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 — whether on WordPress, Instagram, Flicker, Tumblr, etc. — you can also:

  • Add a comment on this post to announce your response
  • Apply the tag/hashtag “Pic and a Word Challenge” or “#picandawordchallenge” 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.

Last week’s challenge: Emptiness
Vacant yet Vibrant, Alley in Kashi (Old Varanasi), Uttar Pradesh, India
Challenge #84 ~ Emptiness
The word for last week’s Pic and a Word Challenge #84 was Emptiness, along with this photograph of a vibrantly painted alley in Kashi, the oldest section of Varanasi, India.

Six bloggers found something in the Emptiness this week. Sweet! =)

View all the Pic and a Word Challenges, including the current challenge, on the Pic and a Word Challenge tag page.