What The Day Said: A Review of Adamu Usman Garko’s “When Day Breaks”

Reviewer: Ojo Olumide Emmanuel
Book Title: When Day Breaks
Author: Adamu Usman Garko
Year of Publication: 2018
Number of Pages: 52
Publisher: Words Rhymes & Rhythm Limited, Abuja.
ISBN: 978-978-969-289-7

Introduction
It is within the emotional and logical enclave of humans to appreciate any work of art that brings one to that point where they are totally immersed in the thoughts of the creator. Beautiful well crafted poems do not only carry meaning but in a more religious sense, they appeal to our sense of aestheticism. Adamu Usman Garko, a blooming multifaceted teenage artist has found his flute in poetry and his debut collection, “When Day Breaks” escalates numerous concord of tune the teenage author wants the world to hear. It gives the reader the gain of reading the poet’s consciousness of the world around him.

This collection is reminiscent and touchy; crafted with such artistic sagacity daring enough to compete in dexterity writers above his age, as he carves a niche for himself in the literary community.

The poem runs on four themes of nine poems each. Even though I am aware of poetic ambiguity which is the notion that poetry and other forms of art are susceptible to varied interpretations, I want to state that this review is my candid opinion on his work and I shall discuss the meaning I derive from each theme and poem.

Theme One: Threshold

“...patient, eye’s body leaps into gaped earth...”

In the first poem titled, High School, as indicative from the name, the poet lays emphasis on his alma-mata, describing it as a womb he entered “When flowers cry for rain”. Symbolic of a desire for growth and in the end, he becomes water (knowledgeable). Water (knowledge-ability) in this sense is an essence none can reject.

Patience, the second poem points the reader to the challenges one bumps into on the path of greatness: “I drawled with heavy heads...of nothing, of air, of naught... Then time brings another season until maturity unfolds; “...exuded semblance of the rising...tones of my father’s tooth.”

Refugees, the third poem pin points the situation where learners seek a cure for their ignorance through school: “as we trudge out of our homes...We are refuges smelling of leather, seeking home...In the softness of your embrace...”

The second stanza of the poem provides a clear picture of the academic environment, “woody mattress” symbolizing the seats in the classroom.

The third stanza personified the school as an “awesome mould”, “a green labyrinth” which is sought, that’s the school as a builder of great minds.

The fourth title, Break Time, talks of the solace it offers to learners breaking them off the fervency of the classroom, a respite to the dusk of the day.

Night, his fifth on the first theme exudes the sacrificial vigil it takes to succeed in life. The poet describes his experience thus: “With melancholic oil brimming my eyes...Tears in solemn torrent aching my sleep...off light, choked air,” He considers his study vigils as the spice for his success: “source of what I see on the tongues of my mates.”

The poem, Family, celebrates the loveliness of having a family and the strong bond members of a family share: ...“fusing our beings...Into one being...One voice.” He concluded that no matter what time brings, family remains inseparable “so shall we cleave.”

The seventh poem acknowledges the power of illumination as the sole antidote to ignorance: “...Buried in us is that fire that’ll grow water...In the palm of tomorrow’s nerve”. Although the line looks paradoxical “fire growing water”, it is only a proof that ideas are viable tool in achieving the extraordinary.

The title, End Of The Song, portrays the different side of life, sweet and bitter, bitter-sweet and the memory they evoke. The poet concedes that a worthwhile memory continue to feast on the lips of everyone.

Finally, the last poem on the first theme, Tomorrow’s Face weaves a profound phase of different faces. Some on the rooftops, that is, the exceptional ones dazzled by their victories; some wayfarers, that is the average and underperforming ones trudging behind with long stretch of trekking to do. They are all faced with the same examination and at that point, everyone is equal.

Theme Two: Longing

“...come back not, stay not, leave not...stand muted”

In Bridge, the poet juxtaposes between staying and leaving. This he exemplifies thus, “if you stay...become ashes and weeping venom” and “if you leave...you become a downpour...flooding bridge and a loving flower.”

The poem, Shall I let you fall, flings the damning questions of separation and the wound it places on the heart: “shall I let you fall off my plane...could get wounded by our separation.”

The third poem emphasizes the need for truth: “I have shielded my tongue against falsity...engulfed my tooth with a thin veil of truth”

The fourth poem, Life, is a foretelling into events beyond the moment.

The fifth poem, Suicide, decries the act. The poet emphatically stresses that: “I cannot dig for myself...A gloomy hell for my sins...”

Winter, the sixth poem of the second theme, reminisces the awesomeness of a special one who decides to leave like the winter.

Departure, like the other poems under this theme projects a heartfelt twinge of the poet who is left in the care of a nauseated moon.

Wounds, the second to the last poem on the second theme regards words as sacrosanct and must be uttered with prudence. The poet protests against the behaviour meted at him by others as the rationale for the fire in his words.

If You Leave, the last poem on the Longing theme is a final plea for a special one to not go away. The effect of such departure is pinned thus: “...I will be a broken winged-bird! Life will be a morgue” (a kind of emotional death). Then a final plea, “wave byes to adieu and build lagoons of smile inside this cave.”

Theme Three: Fly

“...flies dream, fly our hopes and fly the lace of our homes”

In the title, Dream, the iridescence of a city ignites the poet’s arrays of imaginations. His imageries of “nightingale, owls and crickets” are symbolic, representing songs and noises inherent in a dream city: “...I become lost in a city”.

In Dream II, the poet epitomizes the memories each day cast on our minds which are: “Tales for our lisping”

The third poem, Cloud, is a collection of lines garnished in metaphors all in praises for Lagos: “Clouds widened its cleavages... clouds carried a stranger inside a pot....now in a city of wonderments. Lagos!”

The fourth title, Lagos, is a sequel to the previous poem. Here, Lagos and its inhabitants are eulogised in different shades, stripes and colours: “Calm city...Lion-like men, find home beneath sun’s stare, refuges seeking sun’s shadow...” are all representational of this thought.

In the poem, Abeokuta, the poet calls the readers to the aberrance of Abeokuta: “this city of greeny charm...”

In the poem, Ijegba Forest, the poet resonates with the aesthetic, inducing natural make-up of the forest describing it thus: “...Nature speaks with bird’s flutes like a paradise of pure unstained heart... an eye in the frame of the world, a banquet of a living sage...(an allusion to Wole Soyinka).”

The title, Kolade, is a fond memory of a stranger turn friend. This the poet describes thus: “We forgot our identity and clocked our being in the nest of friendship.”

In the poem, WSICE 84 STARS, the poet shares an experience of a life outside home and how he misses everyone and everything that shares in that experience: “...missed everything lovely.”

In, 84 Stars, the last poem of the third theme, the poem reminisces about a place he visited and misses: “...my thirst-growth breeds another thirst...no smiles...more than the nourishment of your darling presence.”

Fourth Theme: Ablaze

“the flame refuses to gulp our debris”

The fourth theme laments the awkward condition of Nigeria. The first poem, Day, conveys the quagmire of the internally displaced citizens: “...from the ravaged tree of our home...we wake up smelling of strangers”

In the poem, Yesterday, the poet expresses his superlative dreams for the nation and the present reality which is an irony of his dream: “I dreamt of waking up...away from this drabbest despair...the vultures on our head, how they choke and dwarf our breath”(Choke and dwarf are symbolic of stagnancy and repression in country).

The poem, Image, is an optimistic foretelling of the future: “an image emerges...with flickering shimmers...our hope shall dandy...eying your emergence”

In the title, God’s Gift, the poet speculates about how precious each moment is to man and the need to utilize them: “...with what time will you foresee time if God ceases your breath...”

The poem, Then tell, is a call on leaders to pay heed to the cries of the masses rather than the tantalizing lyrics of sycophants: “distinguish the masses cries from the cock’s feverish crows...”

The poem, Dove, is a reference to the dove on the Nigerian coat of arm and what it represents to the nation. The poet also mentions that no circumstance shall overcome her: “...neither invisible wind nor a flaming can burn your wings...”

In the poem, Past, the poet substantiates the need to remember the vital lessons of the past and the people involved as they are the wisdom necessary for the future: “...give true meanings to the legacy they had left...even heaven raps their names on soil, on earth and on the ear of our being...”

The second to the last poem, Sun, represents light as a shield from injustice: “...with enduring obeisance I alter my shadow beneath your parasol...shelter me!”

Finally, the last poem, Glass, expresses an avid fear for the future: “in vain I found nought but the morgue of silence, but the crushed mountain...” and then a question is unanswered about tomorrow: “...do I stealthily move...in search of a smiling tomorrow…”

In conclusion, the work is a strong start into pen-faring by this teen poet and the poet holds good promise for the future.

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Ojo Olumide Emmanuel is a writer, teacher and a spoken word artist. He is a proud member of the Hill-Top Creative Arts Foundation in Minna where he is both a Mentor and the Librarian. His Poems and Essays have appeared and are forthcoming in magazines, journals and anthologies. He is the Curator of the Monthly Wakasoprize for Poetry and Abugimbaprize for Short Fiction(both administered by Hill-Top Creative Art Foundation, Minna). He is a current cohort of SprinNG Writers Fellowship.