Vancouver

Where am I to find your soul Oh, Vancouver, where are you? In your magnificent parks Downtown symmetry of beautiful roads Speeding sky-trains sliding smooth North, south east and west On sky-rise mansions that shine back the sun? Where are you? I missed you wherever I looked Like the elusive maple Hard to spot in your famous parks Just dry leaves here and there Then on paper Proud image of State power. Vancouver, where are you? The grey of the sky, rain-soaked wet Bite of chilly winds from west Had no answer to offer Neither did cherry-blossoms That rain splendour on the roads And passers-by So profusely Vancouver, where am I to find your soul? I looked for you in the shine Of lovers’ eyes in embrace, in vain, In walkers who throw gentle smiles On passers-by, yet aloof by miles In the childlike demeanour of the aged Meandering your parks their past packaged I asked the firs, acacia, pines Cypress, magnolia, evergreens Giant dogwoods fast asleep Thoughtful spruces, cedars alike They offered a pre-spring yawn Clad still smug in winter yarns Silent, cold was Seymour Creek Mist on Fraser did not speak Ice-capped peaks on north and south Neither had a word to mouth Nothing on the landscape revealed Where Vancouver remained concealed Where am I to find your soul? Oh, Vancouver, where are you? At last as I emplane home, I am beckoned from the groves By you, Vancouver, there you are In the sprouts that dot the barks - Budding foliage - spring embarks! You are the one soul that sustains Winter’s silence, mirth of spring Like sleep and wake in single chain In me, Oh, we never are twain Sad I missed you so many times!