Vistas and Byways Review - Fall 2025.
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​POETRY            

"You sang with such passion we thought you believed it."
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                                        Photo by Weebly                                     

In Memory of Andy Gibb
by Vivian Imperiale

We were looking at you
and seeing that smooth, youthful face.
We were listening to you 
and hearing that beautiful voice.
We looked, we listened 
but we didn’t see or hear 
what was really there.

You sang of sharing troubles
to relieve the burden.
You sang with such passion
we thought you believed it.
But you weren’t listening
to your own voice.
We learned, 
but you did not.

Not a sign, not a clue
that you were 
about to destroy yourself
just weeks later.
At 30.

Oh, the words from you 
we will never hear.
The years ahead
that could have been yours 
had you been able to
live what you sang and 
“Lay Your Troubles on My Shoulder.”
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​Vivian Imperiale has been viewing the world through a poet’s eye since she was six. She now writes to process her emotions around homelessness, mental health, connections with the spirit world, and the loss of the Light of her Life to AIDS long ago. Her poems and prose have been published online, in magazines, journals, newspapers and in books. She worked in real estate office administration and later in vocational rehabilitation with people facing mental health challenges.
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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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