Paradise Road Poem by Madam Anonymous

This poem captures a real life event from the 1997 movie ‘Paradise Road’. A group of English/Dutch women survived the atrocities in a Japanese camp in Sumatra, during World War II, by forming a vocal orchestra (not choir) . They presented over 30 classical compositions during 3 years of their captivity.

The purple haze settled over the mangroves,
The singing cricket came out in droves,
In this Sumatra of thorny fences,
Alert to the cocked guns, stood the senses.

The violins and pianos were unneeded,
The starved ragged bodies were unheeded,
Voices were melodiously raised to a majestic task,
In the gentle glow of life, the women basked.

When upon them, injustices and indignities were hurled,
The symphonic grandeur of Dvorak’s New World, they unfurled,
With music in their hearts, they shrugged the poison asinine,
Peacefully hummed mesmerizing tunes sublime.

Helpless and beaten by life no more, they strode,
Toward their ample blissful silken abode,
Proud to have walked the Paradise Road.