Cavern ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #282

In the dream
I entered a cavernous space
Light streamed in through windows
Set in an impossibly high wall

It curved
All around me
The inner workings
The floor boards

I almost expected to see
Dali and a squadron of flying cats
So odd a place this was
Until I realized
It was me

I was inside myself
The walls and ceiling
Were my own skin
Seen from the inside
Pipes and beams my bones

But inside
Where my consciousness
Now found itself
Was a vast cavern
Of emptiness

A fear gripped me
That all I had ever been
Was a sometimes pretty
But entirely hollow
Vessel

I wept
Cried out
Tried to shake out the dream
And wake up
Until…

I smelled the rain in the air
Heard the droplets
Tapping the leaves
Outside my window
Felt the cool of the night…

On my body
Outside the vessel
Palpating it
To see if there was any truth
To the hollowness

None that I could feel
“But you know you are”
Came a voice
From deep inside
Ringing with echoes

The fear, again
The tears, again
And a sorrow, full
As the cavern
Was hollow

Then another voice spoke
With the sibilant promise
Of a whisper in my ear
“A hollowness waiting
To be filled”

The Great Hollow
Britannia Mine Museum Concentrator
Britannia Beach
British Columbia, Canada

Pictures from home, 2021

Pic and a Word Challenge

Last week we went for a Paddle. This week let’s enjoy the vast hollow space of a Cavern, or seek something else to inspire you in this fish-eye photograph of the concentrator building at the Britannia Mine Museum in Britannia Beach, British Columbia.

The Pic and a Word Challenge is (usually) a weekly creativity prompt offered (also, usually) 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 to illustrate your post, or any images 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.

The previous challenge was: Paddle

A Gentle Paddle, Howe Sound, Porteau Cove Provincial Park, British Columbia, Canada — Challenge #281 ~ Paddle

The word for last week’s Pic and a Word Challenge #281 was Paddle, along with this fish-eye photograph of two stand-up paddle boarders at Porteau Cove on Howe Sound, British Columbia, Canada.

Three bloggers gave us a Paddle this week. 😉 Thanks Everyone!

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

Happy Creating!