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I Am Your Lifeguard: New and Selected Poems

By (author) Charlie Smith

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normal price: R 851.95

Price: R 765.95

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Drawing on nine previous collections and including nearly fifty new poems, Charlie Smithâ€™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 â€œNo Nonsense,â€ in which he writes that â€œI came / away from myself / unstuck / and a sort of translucent orderliness / like a small herd of gazelles / entered my mind.â€ The cascade of imagery, observation, and revelation that characterizes Smithâ€™s work imbues the collection with an expansive, radical compassion. It â€œremind[s] us . . . we donâ€™t really know what beauty is until weâ€™ve looked hard at the horror that throws beauty into bright reliefâ€ (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 â€œscalding aortal brillianceâ€ (New York Times Book Review).