ABSTRACT
Ebele Oseye has received acclaim as a poet, novelist and essayist. In the earlier work The Magic Sun Spins McKenzie Earl see themes arising out of philosophy, cosmology, religion, human personalities, and the earth, especially Africa. The cosmological reference in 'Black is' is to the origin of the solar system from blackness to light: 'The magic sun spins / from its black predecessor'. The poems in Okike, after she became Ebele Oseye, are rich with the images of African life. In 'Someone at the Gate' she demonstrates how a great deal of experience can be condensed and communicated in a few images: 'A man / opens the gate as though he is on familiar ground. His walk is straight. He doesn't even look around'. The rain is described as a 'sweet, rough pounding' lover who creates 'a newborn river rushing with life'. These poems fulfil the promise of The Magic Sun Spins.
