Review
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Title: The Sun Has Shifted as Have I
Editors: Jonathan T. Bailey
Publisher: Torrey House Press
Genre: Poetry, LGBT
Year Published: 2026 (April)
Number of Pages: 82
Binding: Paper
ISBN: 9798890920362
Price: 16.95
Reviewed by Andrew Hamilton for the Association for Mormon Letters
In late 2022, Jonathan Bailey became one of my favorite authors when I read his memoir, When I Was Red Clay: A Journey of Identity, Healing, and Wonder. A short and powerful book, it introduced me to Bailey and his almost supernatural ability to create beautiful images with words. SO I was very excited when I learned that Bailey had written a similarly themed book of poetry. I was not disappointed. Bailey’s magic with word craft continues in The Sun Has Shifted as Have I.
Like Red Clay, Sun is brief, 53 poems on a little over 60 pages. The book may be short, but it is powerful. For me, each poem was a revelation, a vision into an intense world of stunning beauty. Bailey has a fierce love of nature and the outdoors, and his passion for preserving the world around us is evident in his carefully selected words.
Bailey has two passions that are very clear in his books. Preserving the beauty of his beloved outdoors and depicting the challenges faced by the LGBT community. Both are presented very eloquently in The Sun Has Shifted. I will highlight a few examples to hopefully whet your appetite.
To recurring themes and feelings that I saw and felt as I read Sun were love and oneness with nature.
The first poem, “The Genesis That Could Be,” sets up the collection well by reminding the reader of the sacredness of creation and of all of the living things around us and our duty to them:
Be Good to the whole earth, all that is living. Every winged bird,
Every seed-bearing plant, the great creatures of the sea, bless them.
In a comparison to Cicadas, Bailey reminds us that:
This life is brief
And its joys untrimmable…
The world is counting on you
To make love.
In a poem that caused me to recall some of my most memorable camping trips, Bailey writes:
to wake up, each morning,
to deer grazing
in backlit grasses
and cicadas buzzing
through cottonwoods,
and your head on my chest
just making it up together
this one true hymn.
Mormons will feel the phrase “This is the Place,” which Bailey uses as the title of a poem/hymn that states:
Remember to participate
with this land before us,
for the opportunity to build ourselves
not in the image of God
but in the service of our obligations.
I DON’T want to “spoil” “La Milagrosa,” its words are verdant and ethereal and made my heart sing. The title of the book comes from its lyrics. PLEASE buy the book just to read this poem.
If you have spent time on a river, if you have ever contemplated your purpose and place in the universe, especially if you have done so among the glories of creation, you will connect deeply with “On Which I Walked a Damned River.”
I could go on; I loved every poem in this collection, and some greatly so.
The activities I love the most, and my most beloved memories, involve being outdoors with my family. Hiking with my daughters in Southern Utah. Riding the rapids in the Salmon with my son. Watching steam burst from the geysers of Yellowstone with my children. Casting a line into Tibble Fork. Witnessing the first rays of light pass through Mesa Arch on a Spring morning. I got those same feelings in my heart and images in my mind as I read Bailey’s The Sun Has Shifted as Have I. In his author’s note, Bailey writes of birds’ ability to harmonize with themselves. Reading this book gave me a great sense of harmony. We live in an enchanting world, and Bailey depicts it in all of its magnificent glory in this powerful book. I cannot recommend it enough.