Note:
Rule change this week!
See below.
Through time and space
By act of will
Undeterred and
Undirected by
Duty or responsibility
Led not by
Leash or force
Nor beholden to another’s wish
But to stay
In just one place
So long as restless heart desires this
Then move along
To some place other
There to find what’s there to see
Seman Hotel
Kashgar
Xinjiang, China
Taken while vagabonding, 1998
Today’s Pic and a Word Challenge is a response to Meander, a Thesaurus Game challenge.
I chose “vagabond” from these “meander” synonyms: drift, ramble, roam, snake, stray, stroll, traipse, gallivant, peregrinate, rove, vagabond…
If you just want to use the photograph for your inspiration, you can play by the regular rules. However, the word for this week isn’t “Vagabond”. Instead, we’re going to play by Thesaurus Game rules.
One-Time Rule Change this Week!
First, using a thesaurus, pick a synonym for “vagabond.” Now, tell us what you picked in a comment. If you like, add a few words (or a bunch of words) about why you picked it. Or maybe use it to inspire a poem or micro-fiction or… share pretty much anything at all.
EZPZ, right? Just play nice. (Check out the conditions of play if you’re not sure what “play nice” means. Hint: mean, bully, troll, political agenda, and malicious are antonyms. 😉 )
You can also play by replying to any of the synonyms people post in the comments. Use a thesaurus to find a synonym for the word in the comment, and reply with that.
Some Vagabond Synonyms:
wanderer, explorer, gypsy, haji, pathfinder, pilgrim, pioneer, rambler, rover, trailblazer, trekker, wayfarer, vagrant… more synonyms
Advanced Play
Want to play the advanced game? Pick your synonym and use it as inspiration to create a new blog post: words, images, sound, video … just about anything, really.
You can think of Thesaurus Game as a one-word creativity prompt, but instead of giving you the one word, you’re getting a list of synonyms to choose your one word (or synonymous phrase) from.
- In your post, say you are replying to the “Pic and a Word & Thesaurus Game Challenge”
- Add a link to this post
- Please (optional) also add a link to Thesaurus Game.
- Use the #ThesaurusGame and #Pic-and-a-Word-Challenge tags in your post
- Add these rules to your post, if you like.
Adding the rules to your post will make it a sort of remote “mini-hub” for the game. People can play the Thesaurus Game in your comments, and can link to your post from theirs.
Here are the full Thesaurus Game rules.
Pic and a Word Challenge
Last week we took a new direction in Transition. This week, let’s play the Thesaurus Game with any synonym of the word “Vagabond”, or find something else to inspire you in this photograph of Pix to Words’ author, captured here at the Seman Hotel, in Kashgar of the Xinjiang Autonomous Region, at the end of his 6.5 months of vagabonding across China (6,000km from Shanghai to Kashgar).
The Pic and a Word Challenge is a weekly creativity prompt offered Mondays.
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 images
- You may use my image in your post, or any image you have created
- 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 bloggers made the Transition this time. One of them twice! (Go Ben!) =) Thank you, everyone! ❤
- Transitions, by Mellow Curmudgeon
- Transition, by WoollyMuses
- Transition – A Poem, by I Do Run
- breakwater, by Defying Atrophy
- transformation, by Defying Atrophy
View all the Pic and a Word Challenges, including the current challenge, on the Pic and a Word Challenge tag page.
Happy Creating!