Keeping death at bay

A review of Let Death Wait – By Dr. S. Terver Chieshe Title: Let Death Wait Publishers: Aboki Publishers Type of work: Poetry Year of publication: 2013 Number of pages: 137 Reviewer: Dr. Muktar Gadanya, MFR When I first met Dr. Terver Chieshe on 4th May, 2017, I saw broadly smiling gentleman whose speech, in […]

A review of Let Death Wait – By Dr. S. Terver Chieshe

Title: Let Death Wait

Publishers: Aboki Publishers

Type of work: Poetry

Year of publication: 2013

Number of pages: 137

Reviewer: Dr. Muktar Gadanya, MFR

When I first met Dr. Terver Chieshe on 4th May, 2017, I saw broadly smiling gentleman whose speech, in flawless English, has ring of rhymes and considered choice of words. I didn’t know he was a published poet, admired musician and a creative polymath from his adolescence. We easily got into long discussions because I admire words and “wordsmiths” and because of our shared interest and work in reproductive health.

When we came to part, Terver gave me an autographed copy of his work “Let Death Wait”, with the statement “There is a lot to look forward to while the death waits.” I have read the introductory section of the book countless times, and many of the poems at least twice. I came to the immediate conclusion, like a commentator on the book, Angus Fraser, that the compendium is a “……. a spectacular collection of well written and excellent poems. …. (Terver) has chosen to write the poems on heart touching areas of human life. The poems are set to inspire the reader in almost all aspects of life”.

I found the book very fascinating as some of the poems are even able to evoke intense emotional pain and tears, showing life in the true nature that it is.  The poems tell of the vagaries and fragilities of human life and interaction.  It is not all tears and agony, as the author sprinkled some light moments, the most hilarious of which was “God look with pity on the bachelorhood of my brother who is now in his fifties ”.

What do you expect when you have a brilliant medical doctor with postgraduate training in clinical psychology looking into life from philosophical and poetic prisms?  The result is an amalgam of deep, distilled and intertwined ideas of giant proportion.  

The collection comes like the traveler’s guide and a compass for anyone piloting through life searching for its purpose and still not abnegating the need to enjoy it. It goes into the nadirs and zeniths of our existence and interactions.  Terver  dissected the nuances of death and anxieties for tomorrow;  and how against all those odds individuals and humanity still have within them the means to make it all meaningful, bearable and even enjoyable. Terver engaged in retrospection, introspection and prospection, and was honest and generous regarding his distilled perceptions and rich experience, which readers can benefit from.

Intricate to human life are problems -anxieties, death, misfortunes. But then these are punctuated by what makes living tolerable, as on page 13, when Terver says: “Let death wait till you finish with the smiles.  Let death wait till you’ve given something out”. The looming and inevitable death, as portrayed by Terver, means we have to do well in our segment of the relay-game of life: by doing our bits well, and handing over the baton to worthy successors.

Other soul-moving poems in the collection include Cubit, Venerable, Strings and Ties, and Myself. Others are Lean on God, Taken Together, Healed, Take it Up, Forgetting and more.  With over 70 poems in the book, Chieshe shows what prolific author he is, while able to maintain good quality.  Each of the pearls in the book goes the whole hog in selflessly sharing lessons and nuanced perceptions.  

The Author, Dr Simon Terver Chieshe, is a medical doctor with Master of Health Management degree and Master of Science degree in Clinical Psychology. He is a musician and poet, and currently the Reproductive Health Coordinator and Mental Health Desk Officer, Benue State Ministry of Health, and member of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA).

Reviewer:

Dr. Muktar Gadanya, MFR, is Public Health Physician and Reproductive Health Researcher. He is a winner of the Carnegie Global Council on Ethics International Essay Competition in 2017.