Overview

Drawing on nine previous collections and including nearly fifty new poems, Charlie Smith's I Am Your Lifeguard marks the return of one of our most honest and unorthodox poets. The poems in this collection expose jagged truths: some are love letters; some focus our attention on beauty we may have otherwise missed, stepped over or cast aside; some tell us secrets we may want to carry in a locket; some are x-ray readings of our hearts; some are laugh-out-loud funny; some are quiet revelations. Each one is a prism through which Smith refracts and reflects the experience of consciousness, such as ""No Nonsense,"" in which he writes that ""I came / away from myself / unstuck / and a sort of translucent orderliness / like a small herd of gazelles / entered my mind."" The cascade of imagery, observation, and revelation that characterizes Smith's work imbues the collection with an expansive, radical compassion. It ""remind[s] us . . . we don't really know what beauty is until we've looked hard at the horror that throws beauty into bright relief"" (David Kirby, New York Times Book Review). I Am Your Lifeguard is prophetic and prescient, exquisitely descriptive of what it means to be human, and astonishingly attentive to beauty found even in the most derelict places. This collection is a stunning retrospective from an award-winning writer of ""scalding aortal brilliance"" (New York Times Book Review).

Full Product Details

9781324118176

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Reviews

""Charlie Smith’s poems are always a high-wire act of balance: The lyric and the down-to-earth, joy and sadness, the spiritual and the profane. His poems do more than reflect on our lives as imperfect creatures; they articulate and celebrate our very existence."" -- Dorianne Laux ""I first read Charlie Smith’s poems the same way I smoked my first illicit cigarettes: alone, dizzy with something that felt like joy but with shades of darkness, and once done, wanting more. For years now, Charlie Smith’s poems have guided me on how to be a poet, a person, a human being in this world. They have kept me company during times of joy and grief. His poems are a match struck against a cold night, and I Am Your Lifeguard is a chance to hold that fire in the palm of your hands."" -- Matthew Dickman

Author Information

Charlie Smith is the author of nine previous poetry collections, eight novels, and a book of novellas. He has won a Guggenheim Fellowship and a grant from the National Endowment of the Arts, among other honors. He lives in New York City.

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