====== Irwin Garden ====== We came here in the bone-still dead of night from every distant fathom of the spinning planet We came here empty-handed gasping through the vortex of the stars, knowing no one, knowing nothing We came here stepping gingerly off the train, as off a cliff, to that lonely platform singing in the rain We had been here all along, high up framed by the heavens on the mountainsides Wandering, pathless, the unknown womb of the forest, in the heady buzzing evening Poised, ready to leap, amongst the boulders of the quarry, golden in the rising sun Asleep and awash in sunny dreams in our little houses nesting warm and quiet in the valley We were packing, ready to leave, suitcase lying open, to strive forth towards the blue sky of the world beyond We were newly-arrived, smiling sheepishly, blinking a little, finding our way through bright and unfamiliar spaces We had never moved at all, and never intended to, and were happy sat in the same old chair by the same old fire We were coming home again, after long years on strange roads, tired, dewy-eyed, to step through welcome doors And we were cast adrift again on unseen currents carrying thought and light to the furthest reaches of time We saw everything change and break apart and form again in glorious new forms around us We saw nothing change at all //By Ralph W.//