From Shade to Shine Jill Peláez Baumgaertner Paraclete Press, Iron Pen Imprint, 2022 Many of the poems in this book are not new; they appeared previously in journals or were read or performed for tributes, retirements, dedications—with that being said they are new . Assembled and arranged during a pandemic, in light of mortality, toward the end of a highly productive academic career. So the title seems somewhat indicative, from shade to shine, of that feeling of walking on a day of clouds, where racing shadows envelope the reader, and, just as fleetingly, they disappear and we are surrounded by brilliant sun. Within this volume we travel from the Orkneys, to the warm environs of Cuba, to the forests of Poland and a concentration camp, to the terrace patio of a Chicago highrise. Baumgaertner takes us there, into the shadows and subterranean Neolithic mounds scattered across the Orkney Islands, then into the bright day as we follow the sun and calendar into Lent, Easter, and summer solst...
