Graphic courtesy of Steve Austin
By Matt de Simone
After more than 50 years of writing poetry, Buchanan native Steve Austin has published his first book, “Excerpts from a Life, Volume One,” a collection that reflects a lifetime of personal reflection, observation and emotion.
Austin said in a recent interview that the idea of compiling his work had been developing for years. “Honestly, I’ve been working on it a long time,” he said. “I started writing poetry when I was a teenager and some of that is making its way into this book in a future volume, too. But most of it’s been written in the last 20 years or so.”
In the book’s introduction, Austin explains that the project took shape when he began organizing “hundreds” of poems into chapters. He had written more than 1,200 poems over five decades, handwritten and typed, and eventually entered them into a database.
The decision to publish followed that process of organization. “I just wanted to put it together and then when I got it all put together, I decided I was just going to publish some of it,” Austin said.
“Exceprts” is divided into eight thematic chapters— Life, Faith, Love, Deep, Personal, Sad, Hope and Nature— a structure Austin said developed naturally over time.
“When I was younger, I really didn’t fit in much,” he said. “I’ve always been concerned about events in the world, and so I really didn’t have anybody to talk to about them. So, I just started writing.”
Austin said he chose the book’s title decades ago, long before the collection was complete. “I actually picked the title of that book in the ’70s, when I’d written maybe 1 percent of the volume that I now have written,” he said.
As he reviewed his work, organizing the poems into categories became a logical step. “I just decided to do titles and put them in the categories,” Austin said, noting that additional chapters and poems are planned for a future volume.
Austin describes his poetry as informal and driven by emotion rather than structure. “I just expressed my emotions in what I would call a rhyming type style, but it’s a freelance type style,” he said. “It really doesn’t apply to any meter or whatever you want to say. It’s just kind of freestyle, I guess.”
His writing is influenced largely by his upbringing, as he explains in the book. Many of the earlier poems reflect the era and environment in which he grew up, while raising a family later shifted his perspective, tone and purpose.
“One of the greatest gifts that God has given me is the ability to decide things for myself,” Austin wrote in the book’s introduction. “Moving through life, I have been fortunate to steer clear of much adversity by taking time to think before I acted…. Independent thinking has driven me to pursue this obsession to express my thoughts in poetry.”
Everyday moments also serve as inspiration. “Nature, just sitting on my front porch writing stuff,” Austin said. “I just like to write.”
Outside of his writing, Austin spent 33 years in the carpet industry and has volunteered at James River High School for more than 50 years. He currently serves as the school’s softball coach. Married for 48 years, he has two daughters and seven grandchildren.
Austin hopes readers find meaning beyond the page. “I hope it inspires some people to think about their lives and to think about the world,” he said. “There’s a lot of stuff in there to just make people think, really to think about their lives and think about the world and other people.”
“Excerpts from a Life, Volume One” is available for $20 at Southern Girls Mercantile in Buchanan or directly from the author. For more information, Austin can be contacted at beyondthestarspoetry@gmail.com.
