Vistas & Byways Review - Fall 2020
  • Contents
    • In This Issue
    • Fiction
    • Nonfiction
    • Poetry
    • Bay Area Neighborhoods
    • Inside OLLI
  • About Us
  • Contributors
  • Submissions
  • Archive
    • Spring 2020
    • FALL 2019
    • SPRING 2019
    • Fall 2018
    • SPRING 2018
    • FALL 2017
    • FALL 2016
    • SPRING 2016
    • FALL 2015

POETRY
​    with a focus on the Pandemic

Tiled Steps on Moraga Street   -   Mike Lambert                               

Shelter at Home 
​by Vivian Imperiale

​There must be other people like me
who are protected
by the shelter-in-place order
in a way others cannot understand
An order that gives introverts
permission to be who we are
without being judged.
 
People like me who enjoy quiet times
at home doing something or doing nothing
as long as we want
whenever we want
People whose world inside their walls is full
Walls not limiting but instead containing
thoughts and energy that wake anew each day.
 
When society opens up again one day
Those like me will lose our excuse
for being us and people will again say,
“What does she do all day?”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Vivian Imperiale has lived in San Francisco since 1957 but still takes pride that she retains a bit of a New York accent. When she was a little girl, unbeknownst to her, her father wrote down the original poems he overheard her reciting to her brother as they lay in bed. Ever since, she returns to poetry to help identify and process emotions to deal with life events. Vivian had two seemingly disparate career tracks with administrative functions at a real estate office and in rehabilitation for those with psychiatric disabilities; she quickly discovered that the skill sets necessary for each definitely overlapped.

       
Other works in this issue:
Poetry
​No Time for Answers
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IN THIS ISSUE

BAY AREA NEIGHBORHOODS

FICTION

INSIDE OLLI

NONFICTION

POETRY

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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.

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CONTRIBUTORS

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  • Contents
    • In This Issue
    • Fiction
    • Nonfiction
    • Poetry
    • Bay Area Neighborhoods
    • Inside OLLI
  • About Us
  • Contributors
  • Submissions
  • Archive
    • Spring 2020
    • FALL 2019
    • SPRING 2019
    • Fall 2018
    • SPRING 2018
    • FALL 2017
    • FALL 2016
    • SPRING 2016
    • FALL 2015