Beauty’s Noon

You stand between me and the dazzling day
No wonder I confuse you with the sun
The halo of whose wide-diffracted ray
Cloud-burnishes the face it glances on
Which by the subtle optics of the skin
Blood-quickened shines as if lit from within

     Joy gnaws me in the thin air’s cold
     Surmise hums in my buoyant blood
     Through fear’s cruel smiles my eyes unfold
     Crowds stretched below me as a flood
     Distant the rush of hungry eyes
     They think they seek to drown in mine
     To beauty born the peaks that rise
     Beyond their envy aquiline

Singing I press on up the forest fells
The enlivening shade renews the enlivening sun
Beneath the sheltering trees my song now swells
In notes like wood flowers from the green light spun
As sky unfolds again in every glade
To grassy sighs the shy melodies fade

     I hear them sighing up the slope
     Waves of desire batter my ears
     The gentle violent in hope
     Despairing as it disappears
     I do not ask it is my right
     Not to be seen as charmed divine
     Nor as unwilled dumb flesh-delight
     I am not heaven’s not earth’s but mine

As the trees thin so my illusion dies
No crafted spell-song can win me the grail
My alchemy is merely fear’s disguise
And not of mine alone I must unveil
Surrender to free choice soft steps direct
To approach smile listen talk and…and connect?

     A smile I give each suppliant face
     From beauty’s time-bound light-wide store
     For beauty gives more joy in grace
     And given joy returns the more
     But there’s no promise in a smile
     Looks can divide but lips must cleave
     Say not I glory in the trial
     As much mine as your cause to grieve

The downward slope too yields reward to those
Who go without regret nor grudge to fall
Will there be one to halve with me its woes
Help and be helped up onward me enthral
Or if alone I once look back will I
See you alone fire-haloed on the sky?

     Shall I turn to the south at last
     Watch their backs shrink who sought my face
     Shiver in shadows eastward cast
     Down lonely flanks of fading grace
     Or is there yet a hand for mine
     A voice that calling to me thrills
     At last the heart for which I shine
     The one to walk with from the hills?

Late September–20th October 2009


This document was translated from LATEX by HEVEA.

Last updated 2019/10/28