Walter Palm was born on Curacao, a small island in the Caribbean, in 1951.

He grew up in an artistic environment. His family is known in Curacao as the music family of the island. His grandfather was a distinguished and aristocratic composer who was befriended with the famous pianist Arthur Rubinstein. The grandfather of his grandfather was the founding father of the typical music from Curacao.

He has published in English, Dutch and his native language Papiamentu.

In 1971 he made his debut with two English poems: "A long, long conversation" and "Little tin soldiers". 

In 1978 he published "Winds of Words", a collection of poems written in English. 

After visiting the tunnel at the Alma Bridge in Paris where the fatal car-accident occurred on the 31st of august 1997 in which Lady Di and Dodi died, he wrote "The ballad of Dodi and Lady Di"

In 1998 his poem “Make-up” was published in the American magazine “Callaloo”.

In 2001 he has been appointed Knight in the Order of Orange-Nassau.

On the occasion of the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States on the 20 of january 2009, he wrote the poem "There are no walls".

After the sudden death of Michael Jackson on the 25th of June 2009 he wrote the poem "Michael Jackson".