Vancouver Poem by Madathil Rajendran Nair

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!