The President of Planet Earth

In a state of apocalyptic rapture, Russian futurist poet Velimir Khlebnikov pronounced himself the "president of planet earth." In this, David Wheatley's fifth collection but the first to be published in North America, he brings an experimental sensibility to bear on questions of land and territory, channelling the messianic ambitions of modernism into rich and subversive comedy. Long sequences explore the other country that is childhood, Khlebnikov's Russia, and the Scottish landscapes where the poet now makes his home. History, translation, and animal life are constant presences. *The President of Planet Earth* aspires to a transformative poetics, refashioning language and the world it helps us shape.