{"product_id":"i-am-your-lifeguard","title":"I Am Your Lifeguard","description":"\u003cp\u003eDrawing on nine previous collections and including nearly fifty new poems, Charlie Smith's \u003cem\u003eI Am Your Lifeguard\u003c\/em\u003e 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, \u003cem\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/em\u003e).\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cem\u003eI Am Your Lifeguard\u003c\/em\u003e 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\" (\u003cem\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/em\u003e).","brand":"W. W. Norton \u0026 Company","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48836013261005,"sku":"9781324118176","price":32.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0557\/1529\/9533\/files\/imageloader_32387b70-02ce-4309-8e94-f7345eec5b5c.jpg?v=1790991792","url":"https:\/\/booksatmidnight.com\/products\/i-am-your-lifeguard","provider":"Books At Midnight","version":"1.0","type":"link"}