Perfect right here

Train travel is an exercise in suspension, of both time and space; the days blur, we are carried suspended across the land, just above it. After travelling four days by train, we arrived in Vancouver.

I wanted to visit the scholar's garden, The Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden.

Pond waters
mysteriously green,

Sky light
eternally enshrined

The garden was built just a few decades ago, but in honour of ancient principles. Somewhat surprisingly, plants are not the main element of a Chinese garden; they rank lower in importance than the foundational element of architecture, and the elements of rock (textured and weathered) and water (deliberately clouded, for better reflection).

It is less controlled than a Japanese garden, but no less careful. It is walled, contained. Vancouver skyscrapers are visible above the pagodas, in perfect balance; this garden belongs here.

There are couplets on the walls.

Courtyard ever green
all four seasons with
blossoming trees

Perfect right here
one fine volume
of poetic inspiration