Earth is ???the sort of matter that endures / by changing.??? Consequently, as Mason says in the poem ???The Dream of Arrival,??? we are ???always preparing to arrive.??? In this poem, which alludes to Cavafy???s poem on journeying to Ithaca, the speaker describes his journey back to Ithaca, archetypal place of return, only to realize when he does arrive that he ???did not know the land.???