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Books by Antonio Cassone

Here’s a #ThrowbackThursday for ya. - Antonio Cassone is a best-selling author with 18 books to his credit, including ¹ ²:

- *Home for the Holidays*: A Photography by Cassone Collection (2018)

- *Writing Lines*: Collected Poetic Works & Essays (2018)

- *Tribute* (2017)

- *Memories My Great Uncle Left Behind* (2017)

- *Random Everyday Inspirations*: The Things Around Us (photography) (2015)

- *While in Atlanta* (photography) (2014)

- *A Celebrated Love*: The Marriage Equality Poem… (2014)

- *The Warmth of Christmas* (photography) (2013)

- *How to Celebrate Christmas*… (2013)

- *Opening the Naked Window* (2008)

- *The Naked Window: Exposed/Revelations* (2009)

- *Blue Sky*: ...Writings for Steven… (2010)

- *Ramblings from the Ragged Edge* (2013)

- *Diva/Cassone*: A Collection of Poetry – The Reconstruction Edition (2013)

- *Looking through the Naked Window*: The Restoration Chronicles (2013)

- *Eloquent Versifications*: Poems My Father Left Me (2013)

ALL OF MY BOOKS 📚 ARE AVAILABLE

IN BOTH PAPERBACK AND E-BOOK

FORMATS ON AMAZON

Naked Window Exposed Revelations - book by Antonio Cassone

In his fourth published work, Antonio Cassone continues his memoir book series with 'seasons three and four.' The Naked Window: Exposed/Revelations picks up right where it's predecessor Opening the Naked Window left off. This story continues the journey full of joy, love, pain and loss that goes with it and the storyteller reveals himself more so than ever before, with a bearing of the soul. The premise of "what if your life were a weekly television drama series" continues where chapters are episodes and installments in the continuing series are referred to as seasons. As you get deeper into the tale, you are taken through an intense world, where reality can be a bit stifling yet learned from nonetheless. This revealing character analysis and self-examination cascades boundaries of sexuality and race, leaving only one thing to come to mind: our humanity...

Available in both Paperback and Kindle Editions HERE

Onto the Tracks - poem by Antonio Cassone

ONTO THE TRACKS

Without looking back

Faced with life’s grim facts
She felt her life in distress
For all the days of worry and stress

Bills piling up
Baby's needing to be fed
Addictions still leave life hard to cope
She'd always be that single mom never to wed

It's raining
Even when sunny
Clouds fill her stinging eyes, tearing
Fretting over spoils of war and no money

Where will she go?
What more could she do?
Pills, or a gun for her brains to blow
The time is right for her wretched life to be through

Oh, she thought, thanks for this sweet bliss
She saw her opportunity train comin' 'tween the building's cracks
This was an opportunity she would NOT miss
As she urgently, bravely bolted onto the railroad tracks

by Antonio Cassone

Copyright © Antonio Cassone - All Rights Reserved

From his book, Writing Lines: Collected Poetic Works and Essays from A to Z 1992-2017 available -CLICK HERE- in both Paperback and Kindle Edition formats at Amazon and other fine Online Retailers.

Sometimes (from "Tears and Thunder") - Antonio Cassone

Diva/Cassone: A Collection of Poetry - The Reconstruction Edition by Antonio Cassone

 

In their seventh publication (a reproduction of their first volume of poetry with selected new works), Antonio Cassone breathes new life into the original work and shares even more insights about life and paying tribute to special people in the author’s life.  The book covers a wide array of topics.  Nature, divas, friendship, toxic relationships, politics are covered in this work.  Throughout are various selections about diverse forms of love – being in it, discovering it, losing it, desiring ‘thug’ passion and the ecstatic heat from it, fatal lust and even the death of love itself.  Included is a mini-collection, ”The FLIP Series,” along with a few individual ones about a gay man’s desire for a ‘straight’ or heterosexual man in their life that he can’t ‘be with’ and the repressed feelings that go with it – in order to save face and at least have a friendship.  As is custom with Cassone’s previous works there are many tributes.  The living tributes are to an NBA basketball player, a MMA fighter, several legendary entertainers from Detroit’s female impersonation circuit, a lady who is like a second mother, a couple of impressive past co-workers, the Performers Awards of Detroit & Cassone’s friend for nearly 30 years, Diva Kingsley.  There are also several tributes to those who have passed on including friends, parents of friends who inspired the writer and a “very dear one” with a back story from the author’s blog.  Finally, Cassone’s commemorative 9/11 poem, Tears Shrouded in Shards of Debris, also along with a back story article; a comedic piece about The Milk Man, contemporary women, a sermon and a visit to Hell cement the variety of this collection.  It is rounded out with a couple of answers to where it all comes from (the inspiration) for the artist. Born and raised in Detroit, now living in Fort Lauderdale, Cassone brings you this collection of poetic works as a “heart-piece” from the gracious writer to you, their ever accepting and growing readership.

This book is Available in both Paperback and Kindle Edition formats. Click here to visit the book's Page on Amazon. Thank you!

AND STILL I WAIT - poem by Antonio Cassone

AND STILL I WAIT

And still I wait
Eager for your reply
Your willingness to debate
And, of course, yet another lie

Worrying and fretting all about
I grow tired of our ins and outs
Brutalized by your lack of faith
Even though I patiently wait

Will you ever come around
From the bend, from the other end?
I refuse to be the enemy here
Yet, you treat me with such disregard

How long will I be forced to endure
This abuse which I inflict upon myself?
As you go on and treat me obscure
While I go about and doubt myself...

Bitter I will not become
I have other things in my life
To keep me occupied
And to not wonder whenever I will become your wife 

© Antonio Cassone - All Rights Reserved

Check out WRITING LINES - Available in both Paperback and Kindle Edition Formats at Amazon

 

WARTORN - Additional Images from MEMORIES MY GREAT UNCLE LEFT BEHIND

 The book is available in both Paperback and Kindle Edition formats - Click for the page on Amazon. Thank you!

Ralph Fritschen, Part 1 - Images from MEMORIES MY GREAT UNCLE LEFT BEHIND - Part 3

Select images of my great uncle, Ralph Fritschen from the book

Memories My Great Uncle Left Behind

The book is available on Amazon in both Paperback and Kindle Editions.

Images from MEMORIES MY GREAT UNCLE LEFT BEHIND - Part 2

Here are more images from the book Memories My Great Uncle Left Behind

The book is available at Amazon in both Paperback and Kindle Edition formats.

Coming Soon - Front Cover Preview for the book MEMORIES MY GREAT UNCLE LEFT BEHIND

In their 15^th publication, MEMORIES MY GREAT UNCLE LEFT BEHIND, Antonio Cassone shares old photographs his Great Uncle Ralph Fritschen had in his possession at the time of his death that were thought to have been lost forever.  They were found by Cassone’s niece and the story, told primarily in the restored, edited family photographs from Cassone’s maternal side.  It is a look at ancestry and the backdrop includes Fritschens’ travels as he served in World War II and middle American life before, during and after the war with captions and musings about family life by Cassone.

Coming Soon!  MEMORIES MY GREAT UNCLE LEFT BEHIND will be released soon in both Paperback and Kindle Edition platforms.

THE BIRTH - a poem by Antonio Cassone

The Birth

An opening;

A blossoming,

The love becomes

A creation.

Joyous occasion,

Long-awaited bliss;

A cry from beneath

The mother’s gracious abyss.

Papa’s cigar,

Her rose petals fade;

A natural relief

This delightful conception made.

 Healthy and bright,

Bouncy and fresh and new;

Isn’t it fascinating?

This child of God came from you?

From the book

DIVA/CASSONE

A Collection of Poetry

The Reconstruction Edition

by

Antonio Cassone

© 2013; 2005 by Antonio Cassone.

All rights reserved.

Paperback and Kindle editions available at Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Diva-Cassone-Collection-Poetry-Reconstruction/dp/1484183118/ - Enjoy & Thank YOU!

You can check out and browse all of my titles; available for purchase at my author page on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Antonio-Cassone/e/B003OC3MME/ - Enjoy & Thank YOU!

...And Deeds (Excerpt 5 of 5 from "Looking through the Naked Window," book 1 of the memoir)

These vignettes are from chapter/episode 23... in book/season 1 of the memoir series.

____

In my sordid, sometimes triumphant life there have been many deeds. There have been the dirty deeds and then there are those wonderful acts of kindness. They're nice when on the receiving end, but even more redeeming when on the giving end.

~~~~~

Lance, my first, so-called ex-lover has been on my mind a lot lately. You lovers of the world know what influences those first loves have on us, be damned what they did in the past. Hell, we all have a past. I know I certainly do. Over the years though, during our multiple episodes of being high profile guest stars in each other's lives, we have always come back together and picked up where we left off. Remember when I said I left Lance originally, because I wanted to feel something for my mate. That was a half-truth then, which has snowballed into my very own personal foolishness.

You see, all along I really didn't want to feel. It was always too sexually charged. If it wasn't an explosive and head-banging (literally) experience, I wanted nothing to do with it. That was then, so when Lance and I were going together I became bored with him and his comfort zone, as far as our relations were concerned. Then, we can't forget Jimmie, who took the whole sex thing to another level. He became boring due to his constant repetitions. Allen was always a buddy. So, there you have the first three of my relationships. I remind you, they were all one-sided and as I told my dear friend, Pam, recently, as I toked long and hard on another ruthless cigarette... I, yes, I have never been in a true relationship.

I have lived a lie.

~~~~~

I wrote Lance a letter about a month and a half ago. It’s been about three years since I had seen him and I was wondering how he was doing and I will admit, I missed being with him. Sure enough, he got the letter and we got together for a very nice, intimate evening. I have seen him twice in the week and a half surrounding the holiday. Yes, before and after Thanksgiving, I was having a little more holiday cheer than I had anticipated and it was wonderful. Why? Because, of the differences. Now I like the familiarity. Now I feel like being ...familiar.

~~~~~

It was funny having all the company I had over the holiday weekend.

It felt good, but whenever somebody ate something or sat down or touched something, I'd say. "Oh Pam got that for me" or "Diva did that for me."

Not that I hadn't realized it before, but what would people like me do without kind people in our lives and their acts of kindness and good deeds.

We would be naked.

Pam, Diva and people like Colleen and those at my church, St. Leo's, like Mary Ann or Angela; my friends like Shad and Marshall and even people like Tiger - they live the Beatitudes from the Bible. None of them are particularly 'religious' people, although a couple of them go to church and participate in their community a lot more than some of the others...it doesn't matter. It is the simple fact that they all have one thing in common. They have very little themselves, but have enough of the "Spirit" in them to give what they can, do what they can for those of us who had or have found themselves in a tighter spot in life.

~~~~~

Don't get me wrong; I have been a giver all my life, but primarily for all the wrong reasons - usually, to impress a guy. Because, you see, for as many men as I have considered lover there have been those who are "friends" past and present whom I have wanted quite desperately, but never landed that proverbial lay in the hay. Not that it would have been a big deal, but it was just that I equated love with sex for a long time. I have a lot of love for these guys to this day, but it hadn't reached its fullest potential because we hadn't done the deed, as it were. My dealing with them has been a major part in my turning point and responsible largely for where I am now in my life.

~~~~~

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Little does he know, even though we never 'related' with one another, he is one of the reasons I now keep a low-profile on the night club scene. When you see how people act and hear what they say about him after he walks past their fake grins on their false countenances, it makes one like me think - "I never want to be thought of that way." And I have maintained that respect over the years. As big of a whore as I was in the past, I never carried myself as such. That's the difference between him and me. Call it an educated read, but when you call it like it is seen and when we become honest with ourselves, honey, and you figure out - well, that's not somebody you'd want to be with anyway because sure it may be a cool sexual experience, but at what cost and while it may be a big deal to you we all know it means next to nothing to men like him of the world.

~~~~~

I have also learned that deeds always outweigh any act you put on or any string of words you can put together in a perfectly created phrase.

-----

Looking through the Naked Window: The Restoration Chronicles (Volume 1) is available in both Paperback and Kindle Editions for purchase at http://www.amazon.com/Looking-through-Naked-Window-Restoration/dp/1484950933/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

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Check out Antonio Cassone’s Author Page on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B003OC3MME
Thank YOU!