Old Mill Road
by Carl “Papa” Palmer
85 Selected Stories of Poetry and Prose ~ 102 pages
Price: $20.00
Publisher: Independently Published
To Order: “You send me your book, I’ll send you mine”
Carl “Papa” Palmer, 8918 46th Street West, University Place, WA 98466
carlpalmer@hotmail.com
ABOUT THE BOOK:
This superb collection is a kind of capsheaf upon an exceptional career in poetry. Carl Palmer’s Old Mill Road invites readers to journey down a nostalgic road of poetry and prose that speaks to the very heart of what a life well-lived looks like. Such opportunities do not come our way very often.
ADVANCE PRAISE:
Reading Carl Palmer’s poems is like putting on your favorite robe, scooching into your favorite slippers, and settling in on the sofa for a time of remembering and reflection. Not every memory is sweet, but every one is real, the words spun from the kind of events and encounters life brings to us every day–bittersweet moments that molded us into who we are, indelible moments that remind us how much we were loved.
–Jayne Jaudon Ferrer, founder and host of YourDailyPoem.com
What I like about Carl Palmer’s seminal collection Old Mill Road, is the way it speaks to people where they live. What you see, is what you get, to offer a somewhat overused cliché. But it is true. I was drawn to titles such as, “Senior Moment,” “Hurry Up and Wait,” “Long Weekends Forever,“ to name only a few. These lines, from “Cordially Yours,” spoke to me because dementia has made a mark on my life too: “Sitting on her couch, / Mom has forgotten who I am, / greets me like a stranger better / than she ever treated me.
–Michael Escoubas, author of Steve Henderson in Poetry and Paint
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Carl Palmer, originally from Old Mill Road in Ridgeway, Virginia, was brought up on a chicken farm where his Daddy raised fighting roosters. After twenty years of military service in the United States Army, he embarked upon a second career with the Federal Aviation Administration. After the tragic death of both of his parents, Carl found himself a fifty-year-old orphan. Since then, his goal has been write his memoirs in stories about his parents and siblings back on Old Mill Road.
To date, Carl has published chapbooks, performed readings, and held workshops throughout the Puget Sound. His work has found its way into assisted living facilities, Hospice, in print and online in sixteen countries. Three of his flash fiction works were nominated for the Micro Award and his poem “Her Fella” was on the 2007 list for a Pushcart Prize.
FROM THE BOOK:
the ride
by Carl Palmer
the world waited
for me to catch up
I did
found it moved too slow
I whirled twirled laughed and danced
much too fast
reluctantly slowed became aware
found the precise speed
in tune in synch in love
harmony marriage family friends
so vivid so vague
the world too fast
watching it orbit leaving me behind
but oh what a ride
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