CCB MEDIA PHOTO
At age 92, Tony Antin is embarking on a career as a poet.
CENTERVILLE – Tony Antin has been a lot of things over the course of his 92 years: ambulance crew chief, ski patrolman, scout master and lead tenor in a barbershop quartet.
The World War II army veteran spent much of his career in the advertising department at Reader’s Digest magazine. He and his wife retired to the Cape and kept active, particularly with their hobby of kayaking on the Centerville River.
But this year, Antin, a 20-year Centerville resident now living at Thirwood Place in South Yarmouth, has a new hat: poet.
Antin’s new poetry book, “Love in Old Age,” has been published by Mill City Press.
The title poem is a kind of love note to his wife of 67 years, Jean.
It begins, “If they had asked me then, if I remembered when, I first realized that I was deep in love with you, I would have said I knew, when first I kissed with you and felt the love, the warmth flow through your lips to mine.”
It has two endings. The first is, “The best, the best of all, decisions I recall, the best I’ve made was asking you to marry me.”
The second is to be added after Antin has passed away. He wrote, “And now that I have closed my eyes in last repose, I chose, I hope, the kindest time to say good-bye.”
Antin has strong feelings about poetry and his book is what he calls “plain-written poems.”
He does not care for prose that is simply split into short lines and stanzas and called poems. Nor does he care for what he calls lazy poems–“no structure, simply one line following another.”
And don’t get him started on writing by egoists. “They are broken line essays that communicate nothing. Just self-centered venting,” he said. For those people, he suggests, “Start a diary.”
To hear more from Tony Antin, including his reading of two of his poems, click below.
Tony,
That was great! I enjoyed every minute of your reading and vocal rendition. I’m forwarding an email copy to my sister who also has a copy of your book.
ED