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Poetry & Free Verse
Challenge Ended
“There is a time for departure even when there's no certain place to go.” —Tennessee Williams
Moving on. Poetry.
Ended July 22, 2025 • 7 Entries • Created by Mariah
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“There is a time for departure even when there's no certain place to go.” —Tennessee Williams
Moving on. Poetry.
Profile avatar image for flashgordon
flashgordon in Poetry & Free Verse

no encore requested

the performance over

the curtains descends

the footlights glower

the stage dismantled

all the exit signs

once bright red

fetching ushers

go dark vanish

your audiences left

many decades past

no ovation applause

no encore requested

Challenge
“There is a time for departure even when there's no certain place to go.” —Tennessee Williams
Moving on. Poetry.
Profile avatar image for DuST72
DuST72 in Poetry & Free Verse

Gravitation pull.

Mid life,the beginning and ending of death.

Where does it begin?

Where does it end?

Is it in the homestretch?

Or is it just around the bend?

Bags packed

Destination Unknown

A round trip

Where it ends, nobody knows

Your love ones kiss you goodbye

Holding back the tears of pain,the laughing years subside.

A ticket once held in your hand,now enclosed around your toe.

A late arrival or an unexpected storm approaching.

Who really knows.

Challenge
“There is a time for departure even when there's no certain place to go.” —Tennessee Williams
Moving on. Poetry.
Profile avatar image for pizzamind
pizzamind in Poetry & Free Verse

In Between the Margins

The tent stakes leave small wounds

in the earth. Perfect circles

that will grass over by spring,

erasing the fact that you were here.

That you arranged your few books

in a line like soldiers.

That you saved bread crusts

for the seagulls who never came.

The city breathes you out

like fumes

dissolving in the wind.

So you walk—

Santa Monica to Venice to—

the horizon offers no promises,

only the illusion of forward motion.

You are walking away from home.

You are walking toward home.

You are home

walking with itself

on its back.

Challenge
“There is a time for departure even when there's no certain place to go.” —Tennessee Williams
Moving on. Poetry.
LuRacer in Poetry & Free Verse

Separate Ways

The end is near.

We both feel its pull.

Like an unfinished song or a cliffhanger movie

No explanation, only a feeling

Well-wishers forever, but lovers no more

Challenge
“There is a time for departure even when there's no certain place to go.” —Tennessee Williams
Moving on. Poetry.
Profile avatar image for SharondaBriggs
SharondaBriggs in Poetry & Free Verse

Believe it or not

Believe it or not

Next month I will be sixty.

It was a long journey and I'm only half way there. I plan to live to see 100 with God's will. But your body never agrees with your time period. I look young but move old. Every bone in my body hurts sometimes. I was born with arthritis and it took its time to spread to every joint. But I'm still here and God is Good. So I am proud to be turning sixty on the 28th of August. I didn't hit menopause until I was 55. My menstrual wasn't going to ever stop. Finally they did. Hot and cold flashes come and go. Although I have several books published, several certifications and a degree, I still did not get the finance I need to survive so the challenge remains in place.

Fistchallenge4kids is a non profit for me but is so fun and mind settling for me to know that I helped someone else. So turning sixty is only an age I can be proud to say is my birthday next month.

Challenge
“There is a time for departure even when there's no certain place to go.” —Tennessee Williams
Moving on. Poetry.
Profile avatar image for 7v7
7v7 in Poetry & Free Verse

Always the Caboose

subway is a series

of sandwiches

now

to be had

on the go

or seated

in rows

sedately

they're offering

a free drink

to each

but sh*t

I forgot to ask

and the paper

clip is a coupon

of the past

like a bindle

lost in the lot

of all these

side by side

drive through

windows

grey brown hazel

that pass

without second

glance...

with so many rails

to run, and jump

07.21.2025

Tennessee Williams challenge @Mariah

Challenge
“There is a time for departure even when there's no certain place to go.” —Tennessee Williams
Moving on. Poetry.
Profile avatar image for Vins
Vins in Poetry & Free Verse

Time to Go

Everyone seems to know where they are going. Yet everyone seems to feel left behind. School, A career. I don't think it matters.

Highlights of their life posted in a sea of people who have done the same,

There's no original experiences, what a shame.

But sometimes your feet act with a mind of their own,

they see two directions and decide both are the way to go.

They split you down the middle, head to toe,

Torn apart now, where do you go.

They still take you somewhere,

where? you'd never know.

They'd stow you away, no destination in sight,

just a feeling that it's time to go.

Life is different for everyone.

We all know that don't we.

So when do we know it's time to depart when there's no place to go?

If there is no original experience how is everyone still so lost.

Your feet carry you with a dream your mind made up.

Are you schizo?

Was it your heart that told you so?

It's time to go. Time to go.

Are you departing and starting anew or are you running from your problems because you are afraid for the blood in your veins to pop and start to spew.

Is that blood or is it dust.

There was once I thought I knew,

turn left, then right, that's where I'm departing to and the time is now.

The future is now so how am I back where I started.

Turning left then right doesn't make a circle does it.

Unless I turned right when I should've left.

So I left again but nothing felt right.

I think I'm going in circles now.

Where was I supposed to depart to?

Highlights of their life posted in a sea of people who have done the same,

There's no original experiences, what a shame.

That's why you feel lost, you are comparing your normal day to day to someone's highest point.

The place they went isn't a certain for you to go to.

That's their life, that's their path, that's their time.

Now, it's time for you to go, too.

There might not be a certain place,

but what is considered certain at all.

Who is certain at all.

When is your departure time?

I think mine is coming soon.

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