On Thinking Small, Picking Your Brains, & Never Growing Old

January 3, 2019January 3, 2019 / Sasha A. Palmer / Leave a comment

Washerwoman and Child (La Blanchisseuse et son enfant)

Have you come up with your New Year resolutions yet?

Have you already broken some? If you’re thinking of setting a few goals for 2019, heed Rachelle Gardner’s advice. Her approach helped her reach her goals — try it.

Have you picked your brain lately?

Check out the best of Brain Pickings from 2018. A good read to bid farewell to the old year, and ring in the new one.

Happy New Year!

“May you stay forever young,” as the song goes. Defy the odds, and prove it possible. And if you feel the odds are winning, write a song, or a poem about it. Read Fern Hill by Dylan Thomas for inspiration.

Image: Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Washerwoman and Child (La Blanchisseuse et son enfant), 1886. Oil on canvas, Overall: 32 x 25 9/16 in. (81.3 x 65 cm). BF219. Public Domain.

National Poetry Month: Stay Inspired

April 12, 2018April 11, 2018 / Sasha A. Palmer / Leave a comment

“The yellow half-moon enlarged, sagging down, drooping, the face of the sea almost touching,
The boy ecstatic” — Walt Whitman, “Leaves of Grass”

“2018 National Poetry Month poster, designed by AIGA Medal and National Design Award-winning designer Paula Scher, celebrates typography and is suggestive of concrete poetry and Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass.”

How’s your poetry month going?

The Poem-A-Day challenge is in full swing over at Poetic Asides. Never too late to join the fun. Write to all the prompts or choose the ones that speak to you most, share your work with others or pigeonhole it for now. Up to you. Just write.

Need more inspiration?

Check out Poem of Quotes 2018 English Literature Website Awards. The first category on the list is Poetry, and I’m very happy to see Another Porch among the winners. Congratulations, Janet Martin! Well done, and well deserved.

How about even more inspiration?

See the early 20th century stunning illustrations of English artist Margaret C. Cook for Walt Whitman’s ‘Leaves of Grass’ — inspiration guaranteed.

How are you celebrating National Poetry Month? Share in the comments.

Enjoyed the post? Press “like” and share the post on social media — thank you.

Image: Margaret C. Cook via http://www.brainpickings.org

On Guest Posts, Poem Painting, & Freedom

November 2, 2017October 6, 2017 / Sasha A. Palmer

Want to write a guest post for Indies Unlimited? Read this.

“But your poems are rather hard to understand, whereas your paintings are so easy.
Easy?
Of course — you paint flowers and girls and sunsets; things that everybody understands.
I never met him.
Who?
Everybody.”

Find out who the poet/painter is.

Do you pity yourself? Bully yourself? Choose to be free:

On Fear, September Deadlines, & Why I Write Poetry

August 31, 2017August 31, 2017 / Sasha A. Palmer

“What I advise you to do is, not to be unhappy before the crisis comes; since it may be that the dangers before which you paled as if they were threatening you, will never come upon you; they certainly have not yet come.” — Seneca, “On Groundless Fears”

Check out this list of contests with September deadlines compiled by The Masters Review.

Find out why I write poetry.

1974 Oscar Nominee

March 2, 2017February 27, 2017 / Sasha A. Palmer

“Sisyphus” — a black-and-white animated short by Marcell Jankovics.

“I am happy because…”

February 23, 2017February 22, 2017 / Sasha A. Palmer

“I am happy because I am daily growing and honestly not knowing where the limit will yet lie. To be certain, every day can be a revelation or a new discovery. However, the most satisfaction is yet to come to hear another human being say, “Hey, here is something real.””

—From Bruce Lee’s Letters to Himself

“Sail on”

January 5, 2017December 30, 2016 / Sasha A. Palmer

“To the Shores of Need
Past the Reefs of Greed
Through the Squalls of Hate
Sail on, sail on, sail on, sail on.”

Learning Not To Write

August 18, 2016August 15, 2016 / Sasha A. Palmer

“My goal has not been reached; but I am practicing. I don’t yet know when I shall succeed in learning not to write; the obsession, the obligation are half a century old. My right little finger is slightly bent; that is because the weight of my hand always rested on it as I wrote, like a kangaroo leaning back on its tail. There is a tired spirit deep inside of me that still continues its gourmet’s quest for a better word, and then for a better one still.”

—Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (January 28, 1873–August 3, 1954)

So Plain

February 4, 2016January 29, 2016 / Sasha A. Palmer



"It’s funny
that it’s so
plain that it’s

love that makes
the world go
round…so plain.

It’s snowing
(big flakes) and
I love you."



from Murdoch's letters
tricube cento

If fresh, imaginative writing

November 12, 2015October 26, 2015 / Sasha A. Palmer

“If fresh, imaginative writing and brilliantly animated pictures, all wonderfully syncopated, are the essence of an original picture book, then Mrs. Lovewright and Purrless Her Cat is indeed a dazzling example. With its dry, wry good humor and sympathetic understanding of human — and animal — misbehavior, the book fairly jumps from your hands for the wonder of it.”

— Maurice Sendak

A picture book, yes. But a children’s book? Age range: 4-8 years?

I wonder.