Written While Dr Charles Brown was a prisoner of war of the Japanese in Bilibid Prison, these poems give a very indepth look into the mind of someone who has just survived the horrors of the Bataan Death march and was living with the atrocities of Bilibid Prison on a daily basis. Many are very dark in nature but many are full of hope speaking loads for the human spirit.

These poems, brown with age, are written on what ever paper was available to Dr. Brown at the time. Some are written on the back of Philippine immigration documents. Some on the backs of letters from home. Some are even written on the back of prisoner medical records. Most of them are type written. Most have notes or revissions hand written on them. One poignant poem in particular he chose to include on the origanal hand written cover page:
"Come live with me in my prison cell,
where live the free who now sing so well,
some song forgotten with it's lovely bars,
with none to intrude but the friendly stars."

Capt Charles T. Brown was freed from Bilibid on Feb 4, 1945. He was taken to the 73rd field hospital on Leyte to begin the long recovery.

See the letters section for an acount of his arrival at Leyte by his long time friend and 73rd field hospital commander Dr Robert Stokes.



Be sure to check out the rest of this gallery (The Charles T. Brown Collection)