Synchronicity: The Oracle of Sun Medicine

by Tureeda Mikell

THE ORACLE OF SUN MEDICINE by Tureeda Mikell is a poetic-prose journey into the revelation of sun medicine that shows up like a rhyme in time to forewarn and sign the body and the mind. Filled with questions, answers, wordplay, interspecies connection, religious, scientific, and political satire, and prose about the Black Panthers, THE ORACLE OF SUN MEDICINE connects readers with the universal ear that takes them on a healing journey into the mysterious interwoven nature of humans, birds, stars, and those from beyond. Poetry. African & African American Studies. California Interest. Religion & Spirituality. Women's Studies.

Genres: Poetry

172 pages, Paperback

Published February 15, 2020

Reviews

[Tucker]

This book is, admirably, formed of so much wordplay! A lot of this is about the colonialist spread of Christianity. Of the Biblical god, she asks, "Why does he discourage sex? / Is he hetero- or bio-phobic?" ("Worship Warship") "You ain't shit, / Ain't ever gonna be shit, / Unless you believe this shit right here," / Pastor says pointing to his buy-bull!" ... "Yo shit was born broken / But the Lord got shit to fix yo shit!" ("Steal Away Baptist Church") A lot, too, is about racism. And there is a curious rainforest expedition tale about an encounter with a shaman who assumes the form of a bird and teaches the newly arrived scientist about a hallucinogenic substance: "The botanist confronts a large black iridescent bird / Nearly five feet tall / Standing six or more feet away ... Botanist obeys / Removes red-brown mushroom / Bites chews swallows his ticket / Back to trees' womb..." ("The American Botanist")

[Andrea Blythe]

Synchronicity by Tureeda Mikell is a powerful collection of poetry exploring the author’s connection to nature, faith, and magic. It also delves into the colonization and the oppression of organized religion, and the powerful of breaking free from limiting beliefs. These poems have a rhythmic, playful, an a classic feel.

"My Sun,
Lamp of the world
I will speak for you
Though scriptures mask
Your testimony for eyes
That once knew your light
Watched you walk upon writers
Oversee flora, fauna,
Mammal, animal,
Bird, and sea creatures
Obey your season’s will,
My Sun"

— from “My Sun”

[Christian]

The imagery of religion mixed with mysticism (both synonymous with biology) makes this book both familiar and new. There are powerful political poems in here that are, like all politics, personal first before becoming universal. It’s worth the read.