{"id":2157,"date":"2019-02-11T18:46:55","date_gmt":"2019-02-11T18:46:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/westernmirror.com\/?p=2157"},"modified":"2019-02-11T19:37:25","modified_gmt":"2019-02-11T19:37:25","slug":"the-salt-spring-poet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/?p=2157","title":{"rendered":"The Salt Spring Poet"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Michael Nattoo<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 Staff Reporter<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Growing up with his\ngrandmother in the usually violence prone community of Salt Spring, Antonio\nErskine was sure of two things. One \u2013 he would try to chart a different path\nfrom that of most boys around him and two \u2013 he absolutely detested English\nLiterature, so much so, that when he sat his English Literature exam in Grade 9\nat Cornwall College, he merely went into the room, wrote his name, and then left.\n<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now a few years later, Erskine has a book deal with a\nLondon-based publishing company, is currently working on his second to be\npublished, and can\u2019t seem to stop writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just how did he get there?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was always good at writing. I always did well at that kinda thing; it\u2019s a gift, but I never imagined I would be a published author,\u201d Erskine shared with the Western Mirror. His first published book, The Illusions of Life, is a collection of 41 poems, none of which he initially intended to have published. Ironically, however, it seems the married father of two and the once hated Literature bug have become inseparable, with that relationship forming the foundation of what is turning out to be a rather successful career as an author and a poet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The fashionable Erskine poses in his element<\/em> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Though never having been on the poetry scene in any\nmeaningful way, Erskine\u2019s book has sold over 300 copies in the short time that\nit has been released, a feat he is reasonably proud of. \u201cWhen a first-time\nwriter releases a book, it usually takes a while to reach those numbers, so\nwhile small, reaching that 300 mark is certainly an exciting thing,\u201d Erskine\nsaid. He went on to explain that upon his book\u2019s release, he did a book signing\nin West Palm Beach in the US earlier this year, where he sold 40 books. With\nthe coming promotions, he\u2019s confident that number will only go up. And that\u2019s\nnot bad for someone who first dabbled in poetry back in college in 1998.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HOW IT ALL BEGAN<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then a student at the University of Technology, Erskine\nshared that the first poem was one that was dedicated to his then girlfriend,\nnow wife, Shereen. \u201cFor me, back then poetry was a means of relieving stress.\nMy roommate and I, we would write poems and critique them, and that\u2019s when \u2013\naround 1998-9, I fell in love with the art form, but it never crossed my mind\nthat this is something I could pursue professionally,\u201d he explained. But in\nFlorida, on a cold December night in 2017, something shifted in Erskine\u2019s\nperspective on his talent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSome friends and I were having poetry night at the house.\nNow, at poetry night, we would give out a random word and on the spot, you\nwould have to write a poem related to the given words,\u201d Erskine shared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor each of the words given and for each poem I wrote, my\nfriends all told me that I was really good, and that I should consider\npublishing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I came back to Jamaica the following January, I\ncouldn\u2019t stop writing as a result.\u201d Erskine, who is also a Minister of\nReligion, managed to amass 50 poems. And he reached that number by writing at\nthe most odd times \u2013 such as when he would be driving to work, or on his way to\nclasses at UTech, as he is now pursuing his MBA (master\u2019s degree).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

THE WAY FORWARD<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After those poems, Erskine revealed how he got to have his\nwork published. \u201cI remember reading a book and thought, \u2018Why not check out\nthese publishers?\u2019, so I sent them the poems and about a week later, they\nreached out to me and shared that they would like to publish my work. That was\na very exciting experience!\u201d Now, his book, which can be found all across\nLondon, is doing well, steadily creating a reputation for the Jamaican.\nUnfortunately, however, Erskine has not had the same level of success here in\nJamaica. \u201cIt\u2019s really difficult trying to get my book into Jamaican stores.\nEven my publisher tried but to no avail, so we are just focusing on the\ninternational scene. It will be much easier to get my work in stores here, once\nI make a name for myself overseas,\u201d Erskine added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Antonio Erskine is a lover of sports, manages the western\noffice of the Overseas Examinations Commission, and is PTA president at the\nCorinaldi Avenue Primary School. He pastors a church in Hanover, and oversees\nanother 7. Despite all of that, Antonio Erskine writes poetry first as a human\nbeing, and that\u2019s why his work resonates with so many people. \u201cI enjoy saying\nfor others what they cannot say for themselves,\u201d Erskine shared. \u201cIt\u2019s all\nabout the emotions people experience.\u201d Over almost 300 poems later, Erskine is\njust getting started, and the world of poetry knows it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI was always good at writing. I always did well at that kinda thing; it\u2019s a gift, but I never imagined I would be a published author,\u201d Erskine shared with the Western Mirror.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2166,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,2],"tags":[1142,1141,1143,1144,30],"class_list":["post-2157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-feature","category-news","tag-english-literature","tag-erskine","tag-literature","tag-the-illusions-of-life","tag-western-jamaica"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2157"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2161,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2157\/revisions\/2161"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}