Download or read book Demo: Poems written by Charlie Smith and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2020-04-07 with total page 111 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A dazzling volume that gushes with the rhythms of life and language, from award-winning poet Charlie Smith. Moving through shades of darkness and light, Charlie Smith captures a refracted view of a disturbed, disintegrating world. Demo explores landscapes both natural and urban, probing the places where the two overlap. Its narrator is at once wanderer and witness, living among streets where flowers are covered with dust and smells of Mexican food and Chinese cooking fill the air. The poet finds a resurgence of life in the ruins, reminding us once again “that 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).