“A little bit before I retired,” Benicia poet Jeremy Cantor recalled, “I started writing. I remember hearing, ‘When you retire you really should have a hobby or you are going to be adrift.’ I was surprised when I retired I did have something to do. I’ve been busier now than when I was working.”

Cantor, who recently completed his first book of poems, “Wisteria From Seed,” worked in the chemistry department at Chevron’s Richmond refinery from 1983 to 2011.

Now he fills his time with writing and gardening. But at one point, writing poetry was the furthest thing from Cantor’s mind.

“Twenty years ago I hadn’t even thought of writing any poetry. Fifteen years ago I started writing but I never thought of getting any work published in a literary journal.

“Five years ago I had quite a bit published in literary journals and it occurred to me that I could have a book published,” he said.

Cantor’s wife, Marsha, told him “you really have to do this.” The couple has been married since 1985 and raised two sons, Noah and Toby, in Benicia. “They went to Benicia schools. They went to Cal after that, thanks to Benicia schools,” he said.

“Marsha was my editor on this project, and she turned out to be very good at it.”

He was grateful for the help: Putting together a book, he said, is very different from writing poems.

“For me it was much harder,” he said, calling the process “an art in itself.”

“Robert Frost said that the book itself was the last poem,” he said.

Cantor tried putting the poems in “reasonable order,” with suggestions from poet friends. But it was his wife who learned — and taught him — the art of putting a book together.

“I’m very delighted with the results,” he said.

The book is published by Alabaster Leaves Publishing, an imprint of Kelsay Books. “No one was more surprised than me when Karen Kelsay sent me an email saying that she had my manuscript and said, ‘Yes, I would like to publish your book. I even like your title and I’m going to keep it,’” he said.

When Cantor told former Poet Laureate Lois Requist about the offer, “she said ‘Take it! Almost no poets get published,’” he said. “That day I went home, signed the contract and put it in the mail.”

“Wisteria From Seed” is available on Amazon.com, and is at First Street businesses Bookshop Benicia and Angel Heart For You. Cantor said he also is negotiating with the Copperfield bookstore, in Napa, to stock some copies.

When Cantor started writing poetry 15 years ago, “There were some things that I couldn’t figure out any way to say … poetry turned out to be the way,” he said.

At the time, then-Poet Laureate Joel Fallon was leading informal readings at Café Voltaire. “I walked past it one day and saw a sign out front that said there would be poetry readings that night. So I went and that was the first time I ever read a poem in public.

“I was so nervous my hands were shaking!

“But Joel was very supportive. I don’t think I would be where I am today if it was not for him,” Cantor said. “I definitely would call him my first mentor.”

After reading at Café Voltaire, Cantor started participating in the First Tuesday Poetry Club readings at Benicia Public Library. “I still do that. I also read in Crockett,” he said.

Since “Wisteria From Seed” was published, Cantor said he has been receiving invitations to read in other places. “I read at the Sacramento Poetry Center, which I didn’t know existed,” he said.

Cantor will read from “Wisteria From Seed” Monday evening at Bookshop Benicia. Afterward, he will read for a group called Poetry Express on Feb. 16, among other readings in Napa. His full schedule is listed on his website, jeremycantorpoet.com.

“It kind of expands. You go to a reading, and somebody who is in charge of a reading someplace else really likes your work and they say, ‘Would you please come and read to us?’ I find my reputation expanding,” he said.

“This is all new to me, I never thought I’d be doing this. I love it.”

Not bad for a guy who said he had no formal writing experience, and was at one time terrified at the sight of a blank page. “Not all poets have MFA degrees,” he said.

Cantor said he writes a lot about nature.

“I’ve encountered literary journals where the editors will come right out and say, ‘Don’t send us any poems about dogs.’ But I’ve written two poems about dogs. I think they’re wonderful.”

Cantor also has written about birds, trees, people, love, life and death.

“You might call it lyric poetry. Sometimes I am a bit of a formalist. Sometimes I will write an entire poem in iambic pentameter; sometimes it is free verse and I do what I like,” he said.

If You Go
Jeremy Cantor will be at Bookshop Benicia, 636 First St., at 7 p.m. Feb. 2, to read selections from his book of poems, “Wisteria From Seed.” Learn more at jeremycantorpoet.com.