Song Of The Pacific

Gently borne upon the breeze, Comes the love-song of a bird, Comes the fragrance of a flower, And the salt-smell of the seas.

Somewhere now upon a beach Flash the bodies, naked, brown, Rise the voices, shouting, glad, In a strange, poetic, speech.

Come here, you who want no slaves, Care not if a skin is brown, Understand the stranger’s wish, Seek the peace a sad heart craves.

Here within the silent reef, In the fern and palm-tree’s shade, In the magic southern land, Here only is there peace. —Phyllis Parham. (Phyllis Parham, aged 16, was born in Fiji, but was only 3 years old when she went to Canada. She lives now in Montreal.)