In Arcadia: Come To Earth
from Arcadia, 1986
Dark falls the night, the long rains,
And full the river beneath the shade of the chesnut
Where you and I made known our desires.
I close my eyes and my dreams
Seem but three days old.
Yet I know if I dared visit again
The quiet place you walked me to
I would find the stones now smooth
From the passage of time and water.
There you told me how much you needed me,
Took me in your arms, held me tight.
You sought me out
Realised our love before we had even met:
A kind of love-at-second-sight.
Whether entering the Labyrinth
Had given you knowledge I can only guess.
And somehow, we knew we each
Came from lands far away from the vale where we met;
And knew, also, that though we had to part so soon
No-one would replace the other's closeness.
Indeed, we felt it was only a matter of time
Before forces would bring us together, finally.
Dark falls the night, the long rains
And condensation forming on rocky walls.
So lost to the mist leaving the covered lake
I sit in a vast amphitheatre chilled to the bone,
Believing I dream but knowing my dream is tangible.
Faces dance on the water's surface; sounds echo off
Limestone pillars: words whose meaning has been lost
Since the dawn of time.
Hour by hour my understanding grows.
Life spirals forever upwards; though centuries pass
The ascent is still too slow to measure – but inexorable.
Even at this late moment the Labyrinth halts its journey.
I can no longer hear the rain, once amplified by
Tunnels, chimneys, caverns hidden from man.
The pale pastel shades of the rising sun
Assail my darkness-weary eyes, and slowly,
Very slowly, I make my transition from the ghost-lair
Of the Labyrinth to the shadow world of the dawn.
There I wait, on dew-washed grass
And while I wait
I call to you
My Love – Come to earth.