| Mary Palmer Profile
 Mary Palmer was born in 1957. After nine years as an NHS dietitian, she took to writing poetry. Since her completion of an MA in creative writing at Bath Spa University College, her work has appeared in many magazines and anthologies and has been broadcast on radio and TV. She was a powerful performer of her poetry and a much-loved teacher. Her poem sequence Iona was published in 2008. She died in 2009.“It’s life enhancing just listening to her”. Alan Summers, With Words 2008.
Awen titles: Iona (2nd Edition due Easter 2011)
Provisional bibliography of Mary Palmer’s publications
‘The Barnakle’, Other Poetry, 2(8), 1997 ‘The Barnakle’, in Mix, ed. Paul Meyer et al., MA2, Marchwood, 2003 ‘Blackout’, in Booklight, Knucker Press, ed. Thomas Haywood, Knucker Press, 2009 ‘Blessing’, in Barefeet & Buttercups, ed. Ruth Burgess, Wild Goose, Glasgow, 2008 ‘Blessing for Those in Distress’, in A Book of Blessings, ed. Ruth Burgess, Wild Goose, Glasgow, 2001 ‘Departure’, in Mix, ed. Paul Meyer et al., MA2, Marchwood, 2003 ‘Dreaming’, in Booklight, Knucker Press, ed. Thomas Haywood, Knucker Press, 2009 ‘The Fruit of the Spirit’, in Acorns and Archangels, ed. Ruth Burgess, Wild Goose, Glasgow, 2009 ‘Grace’, Coracle, October 2003 ‘Illumination’, in Booklight, Knucker Press, ed. Thomas Haywood, Knucker Press, 2009 ‘The Leaves Are Ageing’, in Acorns and Archangels, ed. Ruth Burgess, Wild Goose, Glasgow, 2009 ‘Low Tide’, in Booklight, Knucker Press, ed. Thomas Haywood, Knucker Press, 2009 ‘A March Morning’, in Her Mind’s Eye, ed. Rachel Lever, Pyramid Press, London, 1996 ‘Melody’, Fatchance, 7, 1995 ‘The Memorial’, Omnibus, 1, 1997 ‘The Nunnery, Iona’, in Mix, ed. Paul Meyer et al., MA2, Marchwood, 2003 ‘Pasture of the Geese’, in Mix, ed. Paul Meyer et al., MA2, Marchwood, 2003 ‘Pomegranate’, in Eating Your Cake … and Having It, ed. Ann Gray, Fatchance Press, Beaworthy, 1997 ‘Pomegranate’, in Mix, ed. Paul Meyer et al., MA2, Marchwood, 2003 ‘Praise’, in Acorns and Archangels, ed. Ruth Burgess, Wild Goose, Glasgow, 2009 ‘Reflection’, in Booklight, Knucker Press, ed. Thomas Haywood, Knucker Press, 2009 ‘St Columba’s Day’, in Barefeet & Buttercups, ed. Ruth Burgess, Wild Goose, Glasgow, 2008 ‘The Stairwell’, Omnibus, 1, 1997 ‘Storm Prayer’, in Acorns and Archangels, ed. Ruth Burgess, Wild Goose, Glasgow, 2009 ‘Unpegging sheets’, Haiku Quarterly, 26, 2002 ‘The Vicar’s Wife, in Rive Gauche, ed. P. V. T. West et al., Rive Gauche, Bristol, 1997 ‘Walsingham’, in in Barefeet & Buttercups, ed. Ruth Burgess, Wild Goose, Glasgow, 2008
Review of The Asylum Dance by John Burnside, Tears in the Fence, 30, 2001 Review of Finding the Thread: Stories that Connect by Fire Springs, Facts & Fiction, 42, 2002
Iona, Awen, Bath, 2008 Tidal Shift: Selected Poems, Awen, Bath, 2009
Prepared by Anthony Nanson, August 2010 for Mary a poem by Jay Ramsay Lawned paths above a sparkling clear river overhanging branches: this is where you are now and where you can wander as far as you want with no one else around. All quiet healing green. Dear friend without a body as youthful and alive as you ever were with your trim hot figure, only four days gone – and suddenly as we talk, you tell me something so electrifyingly true it lodges and fizzes inside my belly… but lie still as I might I can't quite hold the words you say as I fall asleep again and maybe only the awakening itself matters dissolving inside, from where your dream is real safe as you are now as if among those trees we gazed out into beyond the glass the lawns leading to depth upon depth of green and to this dream inside a dream. Jay Ramsay 18.06.09 ***
For Mary Palmer (A poem for Mary by a former creative writing student) You move between us gently birdlike, watch our silent scratching heads bent, intent scraping for words like fragrant seeds, you treasure our hatched offerings, ungainly strides, pick between the dust small jewels and place them, delicate as a breeze, in full sun you smile wistful curious your own bold passions hidden breaking on like torn flesh, gashed pages of light and shadow, scored by senses wild, unbroken dreams splinters of faith and fury you sing windswept landscapes red and silver and gold amber leaves on birch silken forests of hanging larch curtained by mists, a piebald mare nostrils steaming, stamps her hooves the frosted earth echoes on the wind your burnished lament Yvonne Orengo June 2009 |