“The Five and Dime Store of Eternity”

By Sean Lause

83 pages

ISBN: 978-81-8253-744-6

Cyberwit

www.cyberwit.net

Copyright 2021

 

 

Review by LB Sedlacek

 

 

Sean Lause fills the pages in this new poetry collection with deeply personal poems.  The poems are introspective and thoughtful.  The visuals, the images he presents are perfectly crafted, but will zing right through your heart and give you pause.

He writes with passion.  You can tell that every word for each poem has a deliberate reason for being there and that speaks highly of his craftwork as a poet.

From the poem “Astronaut of dreams”:

“Times I returned speechless,

all my words burned up in re-entry,

tumbling through eternities of blue,

learning to speak the silence of the stars.

Once I nearly drowned in timeless night,

dark as the heart of a burrowing beetle,

needles clicking like radioactive crickets,

yet I learned all that light can sing.

Harmonious recess—I left the mother ship

like human popcorn on a string,

guided by moons, luck, and wary angels.”

 

You will feel close to Lause’s creative spirit as you read these lines.  He has a way of taking the seemingly ordinary and turning it a totally different direction.  I find his verses introspective and inspiring.  These are the types of poems with lines you’ll wish to memorize, share, and quote. 

 

His subjects vary and contrast each other in a good way.  For instance, in the poem “The Good War” he addresses the lives of different soldiers.  The next poem is called “Bees of Autumn.”  This poem is a reminiscent one remembering a lost love in autumn.  “Before the Contract” speaks of factory workers and Thomas Wolfe.  A good flow in the poem itself is always appreciated, but when used to go from one page to the next it helps the overall feel of reading the book in its entirety.

 

From the poem “The secret book-sniffer”:

“Hidden in the public library,

I sit encaved in an antique chair

(hand-carved, hand-polished)

in the Rabbi Dorfman Memorial

Reading Lounge, invisible to the

click-clicking multitude, each in his

boxed-in-solitude called computer.”

 

Lause writes in such an original way.  His book makes use of visuals, placement of words which gives the reader not only an enjoyable books of poems to read but also one that is attractive, imaginative, fresh and exciting. 

 

It’s a vulnerable and tender work, but also a strong and capable one as well.  This collection has plenty to say.  You will find solace, surprises, and connection within these pages.

 

~LB Sedlacek is the author of the poetry collections “I’m No ROBOT,” “Words and Bones,” “Simultaneous Submissions,” “The Adventures of Stick People on Cars,” and “The Poet Next Door.”  Her first poem novel “The Blue Eyed Side” as well as her first short story collection came out last year entitled “Four Thieves of Vinegar & Other Short Stories.”  Her mystery novel “The Glass River” was nominated for the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award.  She writes poetry reviews for “The Poetry Market Ezine” www.thepoetrymarket.com  You can find out more about her at www.lbsedlacek.com

 

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