I
Beloved, noon stands blazing at the door,
A crown of fire resting on the sky;
The sun has climbed to reign forevermore,
No shadow dares beneath its rule to lie.
The windows flood with unapologized light,
Clear as a truth that will not turn away;
And in this hour so fearless and so bright
I write to you in open flame of day.
II
The air is sharpened into living gold,
Each breath a shard of brightness newly born;
The world reveals what morning left untold,
No veil, no mist, no softness to adorn.
So too my words refuse a timid tone,
They rise upright like pillars in the heat;
For under noon no secret stands alone,
And every pulse must answer what it meets.
III
The sky, a vast cathedral without wall,
Resounds with silent thunder made of light;
The earth appears to hesitate and stall
As if in awe before the sun’s full height.
I feel that same suspension in my chest,
That held breath trembling just before release;
For thinking of you strips me of all rest
And leaves my guarded hesitations cease.
IV
At noon there is no mercy in the glare,
No corner left for doubt to hide its face;
And so I cast my guarded phrases bare,
Unarmored in the radiance of grace.
Your name rings clear against the burning blue,
A bell no distance ever can delay;
The sun itself seems half in debt to you,
A pupil learning brilliance from your sway.
V
The pavement hums beneath relentless beams,
The city glitters sharp as tempered steel;
Yet even in this furnace of extremes
It is your warmth that I alone can feel.
For heat may scorch the rooftops overhead,
And light may press its empire on the land;
But what ignites the living in me instead
Is memory shaped by your unseen hand.
VI
The hours at noon walk tall and unafraid,
Like soldiers sworn to guard the sovereign day;
They do not bend, they cannot be persuaded
To soften what their brightness must convey.
So I stand also upright in this fire,
No half-confession trembling on my tongue;
What I would tell you climbs ever higher—
A truth too fierce to keep forever young.
VII
The garden bows beneath the lucid blaze,
Petals unfolding without shy disguise;
It seems the flowers lift their burning gaze
To mirror something shining in your eyes.
If light had ever sought a mortal form
To practice how perfection might appear,
It would have watched you through the noon’s bright storm
And found its highest discipline there.
VIII
Even the wind grows hesitant and thin,
As though it fears to trouble what is shown;
The world is stripped of ornament and sin,
Each surface honest in its sharpened tone.
And I, within this clarity severe,
Discover courage I had not before;
For loving you beneath this hemisphere
Requires no shadow, only something more.
IX
The sun has reached the summit of its throne,
Its scepter drawn in straight descending lines;
Yet in that blaze I find I’m not alone—
Your unseen presence through the daylight shines.
It is as though the zenith of the sky
Conspires to magnify what I confess;
That every reason sunlight climbs so high
Is just to echo your own radiance.
X
Noon writes its scripture boldly on the land,
In letters carved of brilliance and of flame;
It leaves no trembling margin unplanned,
No space where doubt may hesitate to claim.
So let this letter stand in equal light,
Unfolded where the burning hours can see;
For I would rather speak in noon’s full sight
Than whisper under kinder secrecy.
XI
Soon afternoon will soften what is sharp,
And shadows will begin their quiet art;
But now the day resounds like some vast harp
Struck once and ringing through my heart.
I choose this hour of vertical truth
To tell you what no dusk could safely say:
That loving you restores a deeper youth
Than all the golden triumph of the day.
XII
So take these lines the zenith gave to me,
Still warm with sunlight’s uncompromised fire;
They bear the noon’s unflinching clarity
And all the height toward which my thoughts aspire.
And when the sun at last begins to fall,
Remember how it ruled in blazing view:
At the most fearless hour of them all,
I let the light speak plainly — and it spoke of you.
Soft noon sunlight falls
Warm air hums with quiet gold
Your name blooms in light