Palmer is the author of twelve full-length books of poetry, including "Thread" (2011), "Company of Moths" (2005) (shortlisted for the 2006 Canadian Griffin Poetry Prize), "Codes Appearing: Poems 1979-1988" (2001), "The Promises of Glass" (2000), "The Lion Bridge: Selected Poems 1972-1995" (1998), "At Passages" (1996), "Sun" (1988), "First Figure" (1984), "Notes for Echo Lake" (1981), "Without Music" (1977), "The Circular Gates" (1974), and "Blake's Newton" (1972). A prose work, "The Danish Notebook," was published in 1999. In the spring of 2007, a chapbook, "The Counter-Sky" (with translations by Koichiro Yamauchi), was published by Meltemia Press of Japan, to coincide with the Tokyo Poetry and Dance Festival. His work has appeared in literary magazines such as "Boundary 2, Berkeley Poetry Review, Sulfur, Conjunctions, Grand Street" and "O-blek".