Vistas & Byways - Spring 2022
  • CONTENTS
    • IN THIS ISSUE
    • Fiction
    • Nonfiction
    • Poetry
    • Bay Area Stew
    • Inside OLLI
    • Photo Essays
  • ABOUT US
  • CONTRIBUTORS
  • SUBMISSIONS
  • ARCHIVES
    • Fall 2021
    • Spring 2021
    • Fall 2020
    • Spring 2020
    • Fall 2019
    • Spring 2019
    • Fall 2018
    • Spring 2018
    • Fall 2017
    • Spring 2016
    • Fall 2015

​POETRY  

I am the one who left New York  -    Weebly.com                                    
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Moments of My Past
by Vivian Imperiale

​I am from a family sharing an apartment:
grandparents, parents, an aunt and uncle,
an adult cousin, and me--the baby--
whose first word was “Ma,”
delighting my mother for a moment
until she saw that I was pointing at the box of matzoh.
 
I am the child who grew up with Polish and Yiddish
around me, interspersed with English for me,
who was surprised when someone said,
“I like your mother’s accent”
because I couldn’t hear it.
 
I am the one who left New York over 60 years ago
yet, when people hear me speak they often say,
“Are you from New York?”
I’m glad I still talk that way.
 
I am the person who overhears Yiddish and
is comforted by the cadence
that brings me back to extended family
and the New Yorkers sitting
on slatted wooden park benches,
as I skipped by on the way to the playground
where there was no tanbark or rubber,
but only hard concrete when you fell.
 
I am from a family that never spoke about the past
because they struggled to forget the pain
yet they built a life for me
full of smiles.
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​​Since age six, Vivian Imperiale has been writing poetry to identify and process her emotions about the world around her. She soon learned that her poems could be meaningful to others. A friend touched her with these words, "You gave me words for an emotion I didn't even know I needed to express."
Other pieces in this Issue:  
Poetry
A House Stays a Home
The Colors of War
My Poem Delayed
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Fiction
Bay Area Stew
Nonfiction
Inside OLLI
POETRY
Photo Essays
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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.

Contact the V&B
  • CONTENTS
    • IN THIS ISSUE
    • Fiction
    • Nonfiction
    • Poetry
    • Bay Area Stew
    • Inside OLLI
    • Photo Essays
  • ABOUT US
  • CONTRIBUTORS
  • SUBMISSIONS
  • ARCHIVES
    • Fall 2021
    • Spring 2021
    • Fall 2020
    • Spring 2020
    • Fall 2019
    • Spring 2019
    • Fall 2018
    • Spring 2018
    • Fall 2017
    • Spring 2016
    • Fall 2015