Vistas and Byways Review - Fall 2025.
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​POETRY  

"the remarkable feat
that I restarted piano lessons once again"

                                   Photo by Weebly
                                    

This Alone Would Make One Tired
By Ann Grogan

I think I’m about to get tired and “old”
from society’s age prejudice!
I read that 76 is an “advanced” state
in AARP’s * Bulletin, no less.

I guess that’s better than a few years ago
when I just about fell over
reading a reporter’s clear implication
that I should be pushing clover.

About a crime committed, she said,
that an “elderly” person was attacked,
yet the victim was 54 years of age
and a mere youngster at that.

Perhaps I should amend my book’s back cover
to stress the remarkable feat
that I restarted piano lessons once again
as an “elderly” person—so neat!

Do I deserve a Medal of Piano Honor
for persisting in expressing myself
after re-finding music at my “advanced” stage?
Should I already be on the shelf?

* The U.S. American Association of Retired Persons
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​Ann Grogan is a joyful octogenarian, retired lawyer, emerging writer and poet who lives in San Francisco. Her writing promotes the unequivocal permission to pursue one’s passions at any age. Her poems have appeared in Little Old Lady, the University of Vermont’s Continuing Education Newsletter, and KAWL Public Media Bay Poets. Her poems are forthcoming in the fall editions of Querencia, The Prairie Review, and Amethyst Review. She’s the author of two volumes of poetry, Poetic Musings on Pianos, Music & Life and she invites readers to visit her music and poetry website, rhapsodydmb.com.

Editor's Note:   Ann Grogan is a first-time contributor to Vistas & Byways.
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Vistas & Byways Review is the semiannual journal of creative writing and photography by members of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at San Francisco State University​.
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Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at San Francisco State University (OLLI at SF State) provides communal and material support to theVistas & Byways  ​volunteer staff.
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