Taking
a Road Trip in the Time of Covid
Though LB Sedlacek is a force in the poetry world, I don’t
want you to think of her book, This Space Available,
as poetry. In these times of Covid, I want you to think of
it as a journal—very nearly a record of the simple pleasures
of her road trip through the South. Perhaps you could even
make it a substitute trip for yourself as you stay cozily
ensconced in the recommended sheltering you know is best for
you.
Readers who don’t believe themselves to be poetry aficionados
will love the simple language, the conversational pacing,
the way she can make a point without being didactic, as she
does in the title poem when she observes that the huge billboards
advertising religion she sees along the side of the road in
South Carolina. “It must cost a lot to be advertising
Jesus,” she says. She does something similar with the
cops in Georgia (and, an ever, equal-opportunity poet, the
drivers!) and those who sell baby alligators to who- knows-
what- fate. She tells the mini stories. The reader gets to
feel the way he or she feels about it.
Nevertheless, Sedlacek’s poetic nature is alive everywhere.
She is seeing a part of the US with a fresh perspective. And
you get it in little living pieces, sometimes recorded with
her camera in full-blown color as well as words.
You may decide this slender book is the best trip you could
possibly take in this, the summer of 2020. Perhaps you want
an assessment in one word. Here it is: “Refreshing.”
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