Laurel, a Ghazal, by Timothy Sandefur

Story of Apollo and Daphne, by JMW Turner (England) 1837

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Laurel, a Ghazal

Hanc quoque Phoebus amat—Ovid, Metamorphoses

Phoebus, you never stopped loving her, did you?  Her fingers, her face,
still appear in your dreams.  You still feel her grasping your fingers; her face
 
flashes before you at night.  (How she looked, like an arrow, straight through
you, as honesty does.)  There are times when you hear how she’d sing, her sweet face
 
all sinless and solemn, not knowing that anyone heard.  You recall
how serenely she’d touch just your cheek or your forehead, and finger your face
 
as softly as flakes of a winter’s first snow.  And remember how mornings,
her kisses would taste like the springtime itself?  As you lingered, you’d face
 
her and wonder at something so perfect: the magical curve of her waist;
the delicate hairs on the back of her neck—and your hunger effaced
 
every thought but to love her.  
                          Ten centuries later, her limbs reaching skyward,
she stands with her toes rooted deep by a slow, backwards stream, where her face

is concealed by branches and shadows. 
After she left there were others--
Dryope, Stilbe—but soon they discovered you couldn’t stop bringing her face
 
back to mind, and wondering how is it going to end?  You still visit
the vale to gather the leaves for your wreaths, and keep thinking her face
 
might appear, but it doesn’t.  At sunset, the wind turns the fragrance of laurel
from memory into eternity.
                           Vesper now blinks.  Turn your face

from the chasm of Tempe and think of how love never fades.
Just as years leave their traces on trees, with their permanent rings, you’re enfaced.

Timothy Sandefur

Timothy Sandefur is an attorney and author in Phoenix, Arizona. His book of poems, Some Notes on the Silence, was published by Kelsay Books.
 
Other poems in The Ekphrastic Review:

Louis Sullivan:
https://www.ekphrastic.net/the-ekphrastic-review/louis-sullivan-by-timothy-sandefur
Casey Baugh:
https://www.ekphrastic.net/the-ekphrastic-review/new-york-city-haiku-by-timothy-sandefur