1Hopeful romantic is a poetic journal of personal experiences with love and relationships. Many of us are conditioned that we are incomplete unless we fall in love with the person of our dreams. Love becomes a destination, an object, a prize centered on a mate.

The good news is this objectification of love is often a part of our hero's journey of self-love, in spite of losing ourselves, falling in and out of love, and straddling loneliness in between.

The poetry of Hopeful Romantic delivers the message that romance is a luxury, and love is a lesson rooted in hope. Self-love is our greatest lesson and to experience self-love we must heal from the heartbreak of the objectification of love we were taught.

The music of Prince is a big inspiration for the creative pursuit of Hopeful Romantic. Prince embodied radical self-expression, creative freedom and owning your story with audacity. He inspired me to embrace myself as an artist, share my poetry and become an independent author. Hopeful Romantic is a poetic self-portrait of the lessons that come with love. -Yusef Ali