Joseph Peter Ostapiuk Poems

From my tortoise eye,

I see,
...

Just as smoke from the fire
rises to the canopy of pine,
my eyes believe,
'thine beauty is mine.'
...

While drifting on these ebony waves of silk,
the air is cooler here,
where my feet aren't touching the ground
...

Where do the birds go after they sing?
When the wind is unrelenting
and the rain begins to pour
Does their soothing voice soar
...

Blueberries and vines over the fence
like wayward lines passing over the rigids and boundaries
and bleeding;
its skin holds the blood of the divine.
...

From my walking
on the earth
it hurts;
for reasons unknown to me,
...

I watched the boldest of streams
give way to this winter freeze
The water
frozen under
...

Walking this stale, unmanned street
of damp and residual rain
Stepping slowly, weary and lonely
in dire mortal pain
...

These otherwise phantom eyes,
they do soothe it
and deep are you,
burrowed within me,
...

She was just tall enough
to reach their boughs
bending; her golden tresses
flowing earthward,
...