Henry Gould
@henryghenrik
semi-good, semi-gray poet. Minneapolis, MN. Recent pubs : GREEN RADIUS ; PARMENIDES IN MINNEAPOLIS ; chapbks :
Waiting around at the car repair shop, re-reading. Homer, our contemporary, headed home.
Something coming soon from Contubernales Books (on the SHIELD OF MNEMOSYNE)
LANTHANUM-poem writ about this time, 15 yrs ago. Homer ain't the only epic oddity out there.
I've been pouring out long poems now for 40 yrs. This is where that all started : with these two short introductory pieces to a little long poem, Memorial Day.
Poem written 5 yrs ago yesterday. Refers to this print by M. Mays : bird's-eye view of a somewhat imaginary 19th-century Providence.
SHIELD OF MNEMOSYNE is now due for release sometime in early August. While you wait, *Shield’s* predecessor & companion volume, PARMENIDES IN MINNEAPOLIS, is available from Contubernales Bks. (*Parmenides* comprises parts 1-3 of this 12-part poem; *Shield*, parts 4-12.)
This timeless holiday classic 1st appeared in a prize chapbk, publ. at Brown U. in 1972, where at that time I was a sophomore. Prize was judged by a fine RI poet, the late Paul Petrie, who by this modest act set my stellar poetry career in motion. See photos for details. Ever in my grateful memory.
Cottonwood leaves emit a special seething sound, more like the sea, or the sea on the prairie.
Kids' fife & drum group rehearsing for 4th of July. At the river park in St.Charles, Missouri (outside St. Louis)
...all undergoing at present. The poems' tone is even, plain, stern and adamant, like a sawn-off cylinder from the stump of an old pine. But if you attend patiently, you trace the thread of the rings in the round wooden trunk; & smell the scent of pine-tar sap. 2/2
Understand your opponent, so you can defeat them (on the common ground of truth).
Driving down to Atlanta, delivering a family heirloom, smoke-engraved Fort Worth rocking chair. Heavy old beautifeel thang. Thought I'd do some light reading on 35 south. HAPPY BLOOMSDAY !
Poem at the ides of June 3 yrs ago. THE GREEN RADIUS has its own distinct riverine sound.
SHIELD OF MNEMOSYNE will appear in ~3 weeks. The current scene is a summer drone of thousands of contending critical voices – many focused on bygone greatest hits. But SHIELD is an answer to *present* US conditions : echoing back to Crane & Whitman, with an idea of “America”, and of life itself.
Grave of Shaidlock Negus : Quaker cemetery, Springdale, Iowa. A sheep-herding farmer from Ohio. 1st among ancestors of my G'ma Mary Negus to settle (with his big flock of sheep) in Springdale, Iowa (1840s?). (see previous post)
Grandma Ravlin's favorite bird. Mary Negus Ravlin grew up in West Branch, Iowa. Her abolitionist Quaker ancestors are buried in next-door Springdale – a settlement that allowed John Brown's men to train for Harper's Ferry at their Meeting House, though they entirely disapproved his violence.