This book, so far, has been one of the hardest things that I've written. In so many tears that have laid on the canvas of my creation, so many pools of self-doubt that I had to separate out of my mind, so many heartaches that have turn me into the poet that utilizes the anguish for his art, in expressing another side of himself, this book for me is my medicine. I made the title a part of what I thought I've become- with the transitioning of my father and both the grandmothers on my mother and father's side, my dog in 2017, and with the heartaches, love in a European value system-can bring. In the Heart of an Illusion is more than just a love story, but the story of life, death, and rebirth into a becoming that is more suitable for me. It's the pain I experienced as a child finally surfacing in the poem "And then Another Victim Was Found" and "Yesterday's False Promises Are with the Sins of the Father, " just to name a few. My childhood was great, but I am still a human, and sometimes, I am unable to articulate my sadness, so here I go.