GRANTS - The newest surgeon in town, Dr. Okay Harold Odocha, will sign copies of his book of poetry, “Angels in Our Midst,” at the Double Six Gallery on July 10 at 7 p.m.

Odocha is an experienced transplant surgeon, who writes of his experiences in such poems as “The transplant life” and “Surgery, the fine arts.” He fuses art, medicine and spirituality into expressions of his life in the operating room.

In his preface, Odocha writes, “Physicians and patients, isolated from friends and families, frequently share private, oftentimes frightening moments. Interestingly, physician-patient interactions are draped in multi-layered truths on the nature of mortal man.”

He expresses his view that physicians and patients are bonded in a mystical covenant on the immortality of man. Most of the work is grounded in clinical experiences, which Odocha claims reveal and celebrate eternal truths about humankind.

The surgeon is a native of Nigeria and the president of the Association of Nigerian authors, Wale Okediran, writes, “As one races through the 63 poems in the collection, several themes ranging from sickness, love, spirituality to healing and death jumps from the pages to caress the reader's face.”

In his poem, “Surgery, the fine arts,” Odocha writes,

    “If surgery is art,

    Let it be

    The fine art of dance,

    A choreographed celebration,

    Of steps and rhythms.

    Let romance

    Too, its theme be

    Intense, beyond self,

    Yet humane.

    If surgery be art.

    Let posterity then,

    Be its claim,

    Awash with bold strokes

    Of human devotion and sacrifice,

    Surgery is form-fabric,

    The fine art of arts.”

Odocha's began his medical education in Nigeria and was later trained in General Surgery at Howard University Hospital in Washington, D.C. He later studied transplant surgery at the University of Pittsburgh. He was formerly Chief of Liver Transplantation Services and an associate professor of surgery at Howard University Hospital.

He is currently on the staff of Cibola General Hospital and is a principal at the Cibola Family Health Center on Roosevelt Avenue. Odocha is the father of six children.

In a particularly moving poem entitled “For a few organs more,” Odocha writes,

“For a few organs more,

A liver, a heart, a kidney,

A stretch of tendon, a piece of bone,

Perhaps a leap of faith;

Flat lines and last breaths

Bitter rites of passage, get

Sugar dusted as donuts.

Thus agape in the depth of sorrow,

We wallow with much ease,

Painful periods of bitter rites,

Bitter rites of passage and no returns,

So sweetly dusted with cute round

Windows of hope.”

Chalk Art

In addition to the book signing, the Double Six Gallery will host a sidewalk chalk drawing event on Saturday, July 11 during the day. The gallery has invited artists and children to participate, and will provide the chalk.

Gallery Manager Robert Gallegos said that orange traffic cones will be used to define the art space and keep participants safe. A special events permit has been issued by the city.

For more information about the event call the Cibola Arts Council at 287-7311.