Joanne is a student at Delhi Private School, Dubai. She is an aspiring artist and loves to read in her spare time. She also enjoys writing poems and short stories for competitions and has won second place at a national short story writing contest.
She shares before you her poem, based on the true story of Sadako Sasaki, a victim of the Hiroshima bombing.
A Thousand Paper Cranes
Every now and then she turns
The small paper upon her lap
Beneath every crease and every fold
Lies a story to be told.
A sheen of sweat shows upon her brow,
Tiredness gains upon her now,
But her path she knows will not alter
Even as her fingers grow weak, begin to falter.
She will not give up until
She has made a thousand paper cranes.
She pauses a second to glance
At the little table by her hospital bed
And smiles at the medicine box beside the door,
Knowing she will need it no more.
For her work will consume her entirely, soon
Yet it is all what sustains her too.
She continues to persist
Till all else blurs, ceases to exist.
To create those gifts of peace, one after the other
Till she leaves this eternity to enter another.
One crane for that fateful day
They bombed her hometown and took lives away.
Two more for the years she not only survived,
But made a new life for herself, and thrived.
And many, many more for, alas!
War has no mercy, it lets no one pass.
You think you have outstood the fight
But die slowly from its lasting bite.
The bombs had finally got to her
The doctors knew by that fatal tumour.
And that day since, she vowed
To make one thousand paper cranes.
Not more, not less; they would be a token,
A legacy left by a spirit unbroken.
Though she had not long to live,
She had a lifetime of peace and hope to give.
So now she turns and folds until
Her fingers stop, and grow still.
One last breath and one last glance,
The paper crane falls from her hands.
And that was how they found her.
Her family and friends surround her,
Looking around the room, and find
That she was still a few cranes behind.
They set about to make the cranes
So that she wouldn’t die in vain.
Every now and then they turn
The small paper upon their lap.
They didn’t pause once, not until
They had made a thousand paper cranes
At last.
And beneath every crease and every fold
The cry for eternal peace is recalled.
About the School
DPS Sharjah was established in the year 2000 with a modest strength of 146 students.
Over the past 17 years, DPS Sharjah has evolved into a premier institution providing a unique system of creative education with a progressive approach and commitment to excellence. Based on the CBSE curriculum, with an affiliation to CBSE, New Delhi, today DPS Sharjah is deemed as an extraordinary community in the region, to initiate primary schooling and complete Higher Secondary level, from KG I to Grade XII. It has not only crossed milestones in academics, sports and other extra- curricular activities but set benchmarks along the way.
Set on a sprawling 12 acre campus, the school speaks of a rich history of growth till date, an accomplished student body of more than 5700 students, unmatched faculty of 400 + staff, promising faculty-student ratio and a vast array of courses, which provides countless opportunities for student growth and advancement.
Well equipped with state of art facilities ranging from exclusive libraries, techno-savvy language labs, STEM education centres, to a well-connected communication system and a high-end comprehensive learning portal, DPS Sharjah is an invigorating place, with a conducive learning environment.
