The President of Planet Earth

In a state of apocalyptic rapture, Russian futurist poet Velimir Khlebnikov pronounced himself the ‘president of planet earth'. In his fifth collection, and writing in a dazzling array of forms, David Wheatley brings an experimental sensibility to bear on questions of place and belonging, 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 Wheatley now makes his home. History, translation, and animal life are constant presences, as we move between Pictish pre-history, the imagined South American nation of ‘Oblivia', and post-independence referendum present-day Scotland. Identifying with the radical strain in Irish poetry, Wheatley marries the classical, Gaelic, Scots and continental traditions, with heady results. The President of Planet Earth aspires to a transformative poetics, helping us see language and the world anew.