Parkes' poetic style, an intelligent, rhythmic free verse brimming with confidence and undercut with humour, is believed to owe much to the Senegalese poet David Diop, one of the pioneers of the négritude movement.
Reviewing Songs from the Wilderness, Mbella Sonne Dipoko said: "Mr Parkes is one of the fine poets writing today about Africa and the world.
A precociously intelligent young man, he continued to pursue his interest in literature and storytelling, occasionally contributing to the BBC's African Writers' Club radio show and even dabbling as an actor in London, appearing in a stage version of Waiting for Wanda in the early 1960s[5] before it was produced for TV by the BBC.
In 1967 he wrote and presented the BBC radio portrait of the American poet Langston Hughes, who had been instrumental in Parkes' rise to recognition outside of Ghana.
Another nephew, Sam Yarney, is the author of a series of Christian thriller novels, and one of Parkes' sons, also named Frank, is a gospel musician.