I was born and raised in Trenton, New Jersey. Being the third of four children in a middle-class family with both a loving mother and father, I came to have a wide range of experiences in life. From elementary school, I would sometimes sit at the window in my room, which I shared with my older brother, on the third floor and just muse over life, love, and happiness. As I reflected on those key elements, I began to write. From poems to speeches, I would seek to write from the heart and stimulate the mind. My first acclaimed work was a speech that I gave at my sixth-grade graduation, entitled Keys to Success. This speech inspired a journey of committing my thoughts to paper over the next almost two decades. Over the last seventeen years, I have picked up the pen from time to time. When prodded by my mother on occasions as endearing as anniversaries or as heartrending as death, I have written to confirm the love of the marital union or to reflect appreciatively on the years spent with a loved one who is no longer here. In time I will perhaps share some of these most touching works with you, my readers. As you read the literary works that follow, may the poems dealing with relationships cause you to reflect on the one you may now be in or the one you hope to enter. As you come to the poems designed to cause you to reflect on life or fill your life with focus and meaning, may the thoughts and words afford you the opportunity to remember that it's not where you've been or where you are that counts but where you desire to be-as long as you determine to continue to rise. In fitting fashion in form, I dedicate this, my first full literary work, to my love, to the woman with the eyes and smile that won my heart, my wife, K. Nicole Toney.
