Dr. Charles Mann
University of Surrey, Guildford, UK
Written on A Stroke of Hope
In A Stroke of Hope, Tayo takes
us on an inner, arduous journey of his worst anxieties, apprehensions,
a flashback on his life's concerns, his appreciation of his
careers, hopes reaped, hopes still to be sown, when faced
with the prospect of meeting the tormentor of many a literary
man: the end.
Tayo brings a new dimension to world poetry:
the best ingredients of an African heritage, which he sculptures
with no complex before the maxims of a different, so-called
standard...
He is the chronicler, the story-teller, the
town-crier, the marabout, the praise singer, the social critic,
the romantic father, all in one... This work slowly creeps
on our humanity, leaving us awash with a convergent complicity...
a complicity of our human condition reflected to us through,
and by, the poet... In this Tayo has been successful.
