​POETRY  
 
"All rushing through the High Grasses"
                                   Photo by Weebly.com                                    

Her Grief Was So Long
by Beverly "Bree' Brown

​Her grief was so long
and she could not shake it away from her bones
her eyes
lips
or hair.
 
And it was a heavy grief
                            not a grief of compromise but
a grief of wrong choices
of one step missed
and then another 
And she was bereft.
 
                                                    Still
on some days she could open the window and breathe
breathe through the grief to a better place
a bit lighter and forgiving
Until the Dark Tunnel descended upon her again
 
               But all and all it was an Open Field
a gathering of all the words
fighting for space inside of her
 
                                 Herself
A field rich
with mud and flowers and stones
of forgotten Words and Holy Mementos
All rushing through the High Grasses.
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​​Bree Brown completed a BA and MA in Creative Writing at SFSU. She has expressed herself through poetry since she was a young girl. Her favorite quote is, “The universe is made of stories, not of atoms.” (Muriel Rukeyser) Bree was born with words engraved on both hands and has loved words for as long as she can remember. And she remembers Grandma Rudin buying her her first book of poems when she was 8. She believes poetry lives inside us all—it will connect us to the deepest parts of ourselves if we let it. 
Other works in this issue:
Poetry: 
​White Moth


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Vistas & Byways Review is the semiannual journal of fiction, nonfiction and poetry by members of 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.