in the artificial sheltered quiet of the garden
time is suspended human cares lose their immediacy even art and history dissolve or show the reverse of their mask
at one time it seemed that they concealed a lofty secret later
that they were disguises born of the effort
to make sense out of what makes no sense
the garden we realize
that what the masks conceal
is only
life
though also
flowers of an imaginary garden
they are forms of life
now in this restricted garden which reduces everything
to a simple fact making no claims
paradise becomes a transitory concrete reality