[The] process of transformation is the key to all of Okigbo's verse—how can human beings grow again into gods, how are they to regain their pristine state of spiritual innocence and yet retain their own sensuality? In order to deal with this problem Okigbo has forsaken the commonplace world and has chosen instead to reenact the entire cycle of birth, initiation and death. Because of the nature of his quest, his images tend to dwell on the disparity that exists between man's ambition and his puny attempts at becoming God.

Okigbo's verse shows man in the process of striving towards a god. The poet does not speak with an individual voice but with choral utterance, insisting on the infallibility of the statement and its divine nature. The five sections of Heavensgate demonstrate the technique. If Okigbo's poems are about anything, then Heavensgate attempts to work out the...