“Poet Tanure Ojaide’s Narrow Escapes: A Poetic Diary of the Coronavirus Pandemic is
presented as a series of poetic diary entries, spanning from March 19,
2020, to October 31, 2020. Each of the poems is a response to the
coronavirus pandemic, but they vary in focus from the global impact of
the pandemic to the very personal impact on one’s family members. All
of these poems pack an emotional wallop, but the personal ones are
especially gut wrenching. For example, the poem “When the Coronavirus
Comes to the House” captures perfectly the anxiety and anguish that
parents feel when their children are stricken by a deadly virus. In
many ways, this poetic diary has the feel of a verse novel, for there is
a continuing narrative that ties these poems together. The poems in Narrow Escapes narrate
the unrelenting progression of a global pandemic. It is a narrative
that we all are experiencing, and that is what gives this book its
universal appeal.”
