Afam Akeh “I Returm To Okigbo” continued from previous page

But a poet with roots in Okigbo must not panic at the more extreme representations of postmodern poetry. The avant-garde exists to challenge accepted

values and standards. These challenges are part of the constant review of human progress. They are necessarily suspicious of conformity but they are also open to and often moderated by dialogue. It has been a long journey from that teenage encounter with the poet Okigbo, but even now one cannot read a line of his verse without the heart skipping. One returns to Okigbo as one returns to water after many sugary fluids. There is a thirst that only water can quench, and the pure spring of poetry is universally available for all poets and poetry lovers who still thirst after the real drink.

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