Some of these poems I wrote when I was a student both alone and lonely in the Netherlands. Some, I wrote a couple of months ago. There are poems that do not fit me anymore and then there are poems I am still trying to grow into. Some are about people I no longer love and others I do not remember. I have been writing most of my life, I will continue to do so as long as I live. I only owe honesty to my feelings; I only owe kindness to those that have been kind to me. I will not be apologizing for the way some of these poems may ache. The truth is that poetry doesn’t always enter everyone. It isn’t easy to sell or to get people to believe in. But poetry, poetry is never selfish, it’s never impatient. It’s okay to not want to write sometimes. It's okay to not want to read what you wrote out loud to others either. Poetry is personal. Just know that the poem will wait, that the poem won’t judge you, that the poem is neither a bully or an enemy. So here, here are the poems that waited. The ones I buried deep beneath my own shame. The ones I may have posted but deleted quickly because the vulnerability was too much to take at that time. This is for the feeling you get when you are hungry at a restaurant and the waiter comes in with the bread and butter. This is to hold you, until the real thing arrives.