CORTLAND — Robert Adkins considers himself a poet, because he has a license — poetic license, that is.

“We can get away with most anything,” Adkins said of poets.

At 80 years old and after surviving two near-death experiences last year, Adkins published his first book of poetry, “War Story Poems.”

“It’s like that set of headlights looking at you: 8-0. You better get done what you’re going to get done,” Adkins said.

The book is dedicated to those who serve their country and is based on real stories from friends and from historical nonfiction books Adkins has read.

While Adkins has been writing poetry about and for his family since about 1999, he didn’t start out as a wordsmith. He had a roughly 40-year career as an electrical engineer and then consultant at Ohio Edison, General Motors, Packard Electric and Ford, he said.

LIFE

Adkins’ father was from the hills of Kentucky and never learned to read or write. He relocated the family to Northeast Ohio to work in the brick yards, Adkins said.

“So I’m a hillbilly. Or, at least he was a hillbilly,” Adkins said.

Adkins grew up on the east side of Niles in the 1950s, what he considers “a gentle time.” His father trapped and hunted in the area. As a youth, Adkins’ first job was delivering the Niles Times newspaper on his bicycle.

Adkins’ mother was a Apostolic Pentecostal who “got the Holy Ghost” in the late 1940s at the old Waddell Park, he said. Adkins was raised in the church and later in life became a minister. He is still a member of the Apostolic Pentecostal Church in Bolindale.

He graduated from Youngstown University in 1966, before it added “State” to its name, and went to work at Ohio Edison to get a deferrment from the draft. Otherwise, he would have been sent to Vietnam, he said.

After many years working as an electrical engineer and staring a company, Renn Steig Tools, with a friend, Adkins officially retired — though he kept busy reading and writing.

Having read poetry written by his aunts, Adkins wrote his own poems about each of his grandchildren, his three children, and his buddies from Niles McKinley High School that also went into electrical engineering, among other topics. He was first formally published in the poet’s corner of the Cortland News newspaper, he said.

After a divorce, Adkins met Helga Shaffer in the late 2000s at Panera Bread in Warren, and they have been together ever since.

“I was sitting out in the front…and I saw this flash of red,” Adkins said. “I actually wrote a poem about her, too, called ‘Flash of Red.’ She’s got red hair — flaming red hair.”

They live in Cortland and enjoy spending time with both of their large families.

WAR STORIES

Adkins has always been interested in war stories. He admits that also felt “just a little bit guilty” about not having gone to Vietnam.

“But I might not have made it back, because that was a mess — an icky war. They’re all icky and bad,” Adkins said.

A history buff, Adkins started reading everything he could find about war, general history, Christianity and other world religions. Putting together “War Story Poetry” took Adkins three or four years.

The poems capture stories from World War II through today. The first in the book, “The Ride of his Life,” features a real U.S. Army Air Force pilot, Ed Tracey of Cortland, who was taught by local aviation legend Ernie Hall. The poem is based on stories told by Ed Tracey’s son, Tim Tracey, Adkins said.

In another poem, “Flight PS752,” Adkins becomes a civilian passenger airplane that was accidentally shot down in Ukraine: “I am the spirit of PS752 / A proud US Boeing 737. / Young for my years. / Considered safe among my peers. / My skin feels a static in Tehran air. / What is war to me?”

Last year, Adkins spent several months in the hospital battling COVID-19. Then, after recovering from the virus, his gall bladder burst. Both were near-death experiences.

Adkins said working on his poetry got him going again and it is exciting to have a finished book.

At 80, he said he knows a little bit about everything.

To suggest a Saturday profile, contact Features Editor Burton Cole at bcole@tribtoday.com or Metro Editor Marly Reichert at mreichert@tribtoday.com.