Seven Poets, Four Days, One Book is a collaborative work, a poetic conversation between seven very distinct poets: Marvin Bell, Christopher Merrill, Simone Inguanez, Dean Young, Tomaž Šalamun, István László Geher, and Ksenia Golubovich. Reading the poems in the book in serial order is an experience in itself; concepts, lines, words bleed over from one poet’s text to the next. It is one of the finest works I have read that lays bare the trace of influence in poetry, and how a poem always exists in a continuous discourse with itself and with the multi-vocal meanings and spaces carved out by our constant use and re-use of language.
Krishnakumar Sankaran is experimenting with poetry, computational writing, and translation. His work can be found in CV2, Strange Horizons, Watch Your Head (Coach House Books, 2020), and elsewhere. Twice shortlisted for the Srinivas Rayaprol Poetry Prize, he’s a recipient of a Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity residency in 2022.
