I walk out
Onto the expanse
Of rippled sand
The clouds
Roil and tumble above
In grandiose parade
Across azure sky
With every step
I feel a little smaller
A lone figure
Isolated on an expanding horizon
Until I stop
Breathe deeply
Breathe in all this
Glorious enormity
For a moment
I know what it must be like
For a black hole to contain
An entire galaxy
In such a
small
confined
space
Chesterman Beach
Tofino
Vancouver Island
British Columbia, Canada
Taken during travels, 2017
The Pic and a Word Challenge is a weekly creativity prompt offered Sundays.
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.

Four fiery responses for Smoke this week. Thanks everyone! =)
- Smoke, by WoollyMuses
- Atmosphere, by Dancing Echoes
- From Smoke To Mist, by AWISEWOMANSJOURNEY
- Smoke, by Stuff and what if…
View all the Pic and a Word Challenges, including the current challenge, on the Pic and a Word Challenge tag page.