{"product_id":"9781324118176","title":"PRE-ORDER NOW I Am Your Lifeguard : New and Selected Poems by Charlie Smith","description":"\u003cp\u003e \u003cstrong\u003e PRE-ORDER NOW - Published: 24\/03\/2026 \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eDrawing 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). \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003eBinding: Hardback","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56368673227125,"sku":"9781324118176","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/products\/9781324118176","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}