A collection of poems, Pardoxes, by Zakari Tata, is one of the latest additions to the literary writings about life and happiness.

The first question that crops up in one's mind when one picks this glossy book is, what has a medical doctor got to do with poetry?

From the blurb of the book, the reader is told that Tata is "a trained general surgeon in England and a fellow of the Royal College in Ireland. He is also a staunch advocate of humanitarian medicine, with strong interests in philosophy and writing. He holds an Adjunct Clinical Professorship position in Family Medicine at Wayne State University in Detroit, as well as Michigan State University in Lansing." Without undergoing creative writing training, Tata has written these poems from his heart.

The 115-page work is made up of 89 poems, which are arranged in categories, in accordance with the themes they explore. Some of the poems are inspirational and motivational, some talk about family life, politics and power, some even ask questions about the purpose of life. Some others extol the qualities of a true friend in contrast with bad friends. Some others highlight the need to be clean and hygienic. Some poems express emotions in different situations, such as good and bad times. One would readily agree that the morality level in our society is declining. As such the people need to be reminded about the vital values that beautify human existence. This is what the author has attempted to achieve.

One very interesting fact about the poems is that the writer makes use of figures of speech such as similes, paradoxes, metaphors, personification etc in them. For example, this can be seen in the poem "KING OF THE HILL" in the fourth stanza, the first line which reads:

"I am the falcon swift as light

The volcano spewing energy

The rainstorm that respects no one

No fear shall touch my soul"

Here, the author has used metaphor elaborately, though he dotted with elements of personification and similes. He has given human attributes to inanimate objects. Writing about family life in the poem "MY FATHER," the poet extols the qualities of his father. He states how his father encouraged him, disciplined him, and taught him all he needed to know. This can be found in the first, second and fourth stanzas of the poems:

"Who encouraged me to read

Who taught me how to study

Who was all about excellence"

"He taught me about hard work

He taught the dignity of sweat

And the value of honor"

"He taught me to achieve

He gave me wisdom and ability

He allowed me to live my dreams"

In the last stanza of his poem, he dedicates it to his father. It reads: -

"This is dedicated to my father

For he was so good

That his passing was the birth of my life"

From these few lines, the writer is full of appreciation for his father. He is grateful for all his father did for him as a child. Now what are the lessons we can learn in this poem? Children should be appreciative of the efforts their parents make in bringing them up.

This work is replete with typical American English, though some of these expressions are now entering into the repertoire of the Nigerian English. In the poem "I HAVE A BABY DADDY," we can see such features in the first and fourth stanzas:-

"Yes I have a baby daddy

He ain't got no job

Yeah my baby daddy

Someday he gonna rap"

Expressions such as "ain't" and "gonna" are not the typical British English which Nigerians attempt to speak, though with variants now being tagged Nigerian English. Tata's style of writing varies, but he has deliberately avoided the use of linguistic elements that would render them too obscure for the ordinary reader. In others, he does the work of a preacher, as typified in the poem "NON BELIEVER JUST DIED". In it, he urges people not to pray for only those belonging to their faiths, but also to pray for those who belong to other religions:

"What to do when the non-believer dies

I am forbidden from offering a prayer

Yet once in my life

When life was tough

When I was down

When I was beat

When I was hungry

This non believer lifted me up

This non believer

And like an angel of life

Walked in with the grace of the blessed

And cradled me with love

Yet he did not openly confess the truth"

In identifying the existent link between knowledge and ignorance, he sees a pursuit of knowledge as the result of restless ignorance. In his own lines,

"The most knowledgeable amongst us

Are driven by the fuel of their own ignorance"

Generally, the poems in the book contain a lot of lessons which are meant to correct the evils in the society, especially in this era where people have no regards for morals, as those things which were considered as abominations in the past are now carried out freely.

In his preface to the work, the author says the book is a collection of philosophical poems that attempts to tackle life's challenges. He says, "Very often, as a physician, I have to be a neutral and dispassionate guide to people whose values are different from mine."

The foreword was written by Professor Ali A. Mazrui, a director with the Institute of Global Cultural Studies, Albert Luthuli (Professor-at-large), University of Jos Nigeria and Andrew D. White, Senior Scholar in Africana studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.