This volume of twenty-two spiritual poems explores the agony of a wicked man’s sincere search to understand the imponderable abstractions of existence when God has not answered his cries and prayers while time threatens to cut him off before he can achieve his destined greatness.
Reminiscent of Old Testament poetic books Lamentations, Job, Ecclesiastes and Psalms, to which these free-verse poems explicitly refer, Okonkwo’s first volume of his Escape from the Unseen Dungeons is populated by a host of personified beings like a medieval Psychomachia, a battle of spirits or soul combat, where opposing abstractions wage war against each other in an earnest contest for the narrator’s soul.
Not having any external response to his mortal anguish, the suffering narrator despairs of finding meaning in his existence, even contemplating suicide if God does not resolve his doubts and fears. In the poem “Forgive Me,” the narrator begs to be forgiven of his sins and reminded of the Cross. But Jesus of Nazareth is not invoked as a deus ex machina.
Instead, the narrator engages in “A Conversation with Obstacle,” then a consultation with “the specialist” who advises ambiguously that facing his impediment is his only path to his goal, futile discussions with his “close ones” who are in no position to help him, and speculation about “my muse” who may not be helpful either, but his resorting again to “Obstacle” only causes him to threaten to report that figure to God. Dejected, the narrator confesses, “I Surrender It All,” a pledge he makes to renounce his sinfulness for “my freedom.” This is the halfway mark (11th poem of 22) in the volume, but still, God has not spoken.
The second half of the volume reveals a change in the narrator’s strategy. In the poem “Intercession” the narrator writes a letter to God on behalf of a sinful man “who suffers from extreme delay,” very much like himself. In “On the Altar” he asks, “shall I voice out, the things that afflict my soul?” He wants to place all his deficiencies on the altar, “my failures, and obstacles shall I show him?” He will confess his shame, which he has been unable to tell his closest relatives about.
The next poem, “Agony of a Hidden Greatness” divulges a paradox: the narrator is conflicted because he feels deep inside that he is destined for greatness, yet he has no indication this destiny is his true one. Getting no response to his pleas for clarity from God, the narrator finds himself “In the Dungeon of Despair,” which for him is synonymous with “mediocrity” and “pang.” He asks God, “For how long, must I wait till you come? For how long?”
His final poem (the 22nd), “A Dispute with Obstacle,” does not offer a facile resolution, but rather the hope that a door of advancement should be opened to him. In brief, then, through a vale of bitter tears, the narrator has come no closer to his goal than he was at the beginning. God has not answered him, but he has come to grips with his situation and now is ready to enter the next phase of his spiritual enlightenment.
The poet has convincingly portrayed the throes of a tormented human spirit whose sinfulness and stature will not allow him to measure up to his rightful place in the world before he dies. The resolution of his difficulties will presumably be presented in the next two volumes of Okonkwo’s work.
This review is written by Wilson F. Engel, III, Ph.D
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