Shield of Mnemosyne

Shield of Mnemosyne is a long poem in nine parts, written over thirteen months, from January 2025 to February 2026. It is the sequel to Parmenides in Minneapolis, a sequence in three parts published by Contubernales Books. The entire two-volume, twelve chapter work was impelled by a strong emotional response - beginning in foreboding, culminating in shock and outrage - to the attacks, both obvious and disguised, on the poet's sense of American norms and values, on the rule of law, and on liberal democracy. Shield of Mnemosyne attempts to weld this current (and murky) historical atmosphere to the poet's sense of the moral, philosophical, and aesthetic roots of poetry itself.

This quietly furious and grimly hopeful collection of dream songs rise out of myth, family, and philosophy, toward a spirit of — not unity, but — integration and wholeness. A work both epic and intimate, and guided by a fierce moral vision, Shield of Mnemosyne continues Gould’s stunning decades-long endeavor to make hope and history rhyme.

– Robert van Vliet, author of Vessels