This book is a combination of my thoughts, feelings, ideas, my joy, my pain, and my sorrow as I have walked the last 45 years of this life. There were times that this book and the poems are inspired by actual people that I have had the pleasure of meeting other times and moments of joy and laughter and even tragedy as I have had an opportunity to pour my heart out onto paper. There were times in this book when the poems are inspired by a thought or feeling or a moment. I have walked this journey called life through moments of pain. There is a popular saying that the struggle is real after spending time deployed in combat I agree some of the poems have been inspired by moments of real clarity with bullets and bombs popping and bursting all around me. After experiencing some of the most horrific moments of my life these poems were how I have dealt with these life moments. I invite you to share with me my journey makes it be real, and a moment of relief and transparency for you as it was for me. This book causes me to laugh at times to cry and to contemplate my existence as well as humanity.