(Another) Coffee Chat with Don Palmer
Pour yourself a nice steaming cup and settle in to get to know Don Palmer a little better.
Tell us a bit about yourself.
have been writing and submitting poetry since the 1980's. I grew up in Montreal which has always had a very vibrant poetry scene. Back then my poems appeared frequently in Poetry Montreal and Poetry Toronto, and various U.S. publication. I moved to Ottawa in 1992, to take up the position as CEO of a community mental health organization. That very rewarding work sucked up all my time and energy until I retired in 2019. Since then, I have returned to writing poetry, my new full-time job, (that doesn't pay anything), but has its own intrinsic reward. Since retiring, my poems have appeared in publications in Canada, the U.S. and Europe, so I guess I didn't lose too many steps in my dormant decades! (included I should mention have been 3 poems in Blank Spaces in two separate issues). Currently, I live in Merrickville, a rural town between Ottawa and Brockville. Though somewhat isolated, I connect with other poets once a month through The Woven Tale Poetry Group.
“Writing takes time and effort. Get out there, be seen, be heard. Network with writers wherever and whenever possible. Sometimes one contact with one person who loves what you write can make a big difference. ”
How do you take your coffee? Any way I can.
What Blank Spaces issue were you first published in? June 2024 - Volume 8, Issue 4.
When did you first know you wanted to write? Pretty much as soon as I could read. My parents had The Complete Works of Shakespeare, which I read at a very young age. I attribute that to the development of a love for poetry. I attended Dawson College with a diploma in Eng. Lit. and Concordia U. with a B.A., with a focus on Eng. Lit.
What are you reading right now? What is it about and what keeps you coming back to the pages? Currently I am reading A Film in Which I play Everyone, poems by Mary Jo Bang, whose poems along with the poetry of Ai and Margaret Atwood, are my absolute favourites. Stylistically, they are in my wheel-house and going back to them often helps fuel my creativity. Prose-wise, In fiction, I am reading Susan Musgrave's, The Charcoal Burners, and non-fiction wise, I am reading Moscow 1812, Napoleon's Fatal March, by Adam Zamoyski. I find I need to read a variety of books all at once to cleanse my palate .
What role has Blank Spaces played in your creative journey? There are few publications I read regularly, but Blank Spaces is one I return to continuously. It is the quality of the writing, the mixture of prose, poetry, and art, as well as the whole production quality of the magazine that I love.
Tell us a little about the piece Blank Spaces published and how it was received by family, friends, and the greater community? For those poets with whom I commiserate with they enjoyed the poems. As for the rest, I have no idea as I don't have a webpage.
Describe how you see the landscape of Canadian publishing. It could be less restrictive. In my mind, too much concern is placed on the ethnicity and sexual orientation of the writer, rather than on the quality of the writing. Sadly, I feel poets in particular need to spend an inordinate amount of time ensuring nothing they write, might even in the most obtuse way, trigger a negative response from a reader. I would love to see Anne Sexton try to get published today!
Why is Canadian content important? Canadian perspective is unique.
Where has your creative journey taken you since being published in Blank Spaces? I have been published in a number of publications, both in print and online, although I am a lazy submitter, largely I I write for myself.
What does your writing process look like? I write for an hour or two early every morning, fueled with coffee. Usually as soon as I get up because then my mind is a blank slate and I can do with it what I want.
How do you invest in your writing goals? Interesting question. Likely by wide exposure to the writing of others through obsessive reading, whether through books, journals, or the dozens of poems that pour into my email every day.
What one thing would you give up to become a better writer? The only way anyone becomes a better writer is by working at it. The only thing you give up is time, but I cannot think of a better way to recuperate it.
If you could tell your young creative self anything, what would it be? Just keep doing what you are doing! Something is working!
Who are your writing influences and how do they motivate you? Other than the poets I list in an earlier question, I would include the Confessionals, the poetry of Leonard Cohen, and Irving Layton, but I have been influenced by so many prose writers and poets, that just trying to think of a list makes me want to take a nap.
Who is your hero of fiction? Don't really have a hero. There are characters in books that are heroes, but not a single character.
What is the first book that made you cry? Maybe the death of Piggy or Simon in Lord of the Flies.
What do you tell yourself every time it gets hard and you want to quit? Quit! Tomorrow is a new day. Half of the process is knowing when to quit.
Do you have any writing rituals that help the words flow? I try no to push it. When the flow of words and ideas stop, so do I.
Who do you think makes a better writer: an empath or a pragmatist? A pragmatic empath!
What advice do you have for writers struggling to break into the industry? It takes time and effort. Get out there, be seen, be heard. Network with writers wherever and whenever possible. Sometimes one contact with one person who loves what you write can make a big difference.
What are your creative goals? Where do you see yourself in five years? Poetry is the love of my life. Five years from now I will have more to share and hopefully more published poems under my belt.
What are you currently working on? I am working on a chapbook describing the sorrow, grief, and guilt associated with losing a child. In my case, it was my daughter who died from a drug overdose in 2022. I am about 14 poems into it, so I’m getting close to considering submission somewhere. My working titles are Deconstructing Grief, or Funeral Songs, not sure which, if either will work best in the end. I started the series to celebrate my daughter's life and to process my own pain. It has helped immensely, and knowing I will never really be healed, I will likely continue to add poems as long as I am still alive.
What should we be watching for from you? More submissions and hopefully more poems in print.
“ I write for an hour or two early every morning, fueled with coffee. Usually as soon as I get up because then my mind is a blank slate and I can do with it what I want.”
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Learn more about Don’s work that has been featured in Blank Spaces here.
