Dear Reader, At the time of publishing Cold Wet Windy, I have been living again in Yorkshire in England for nearly two years. This has been one of the best decisions that my dear, sweet, bearded, furniture-making Englishman husband, Max and I have made. When I first moved to Leeds in 2010, I came as a tourist and I couldn't legally work, study, or volunteer. With everything stripped away, I was left with my writing and my art. At first it felt like I was scraping the bottom of the barrel and the "leftovers" were art and writing. It took a couple of years of significant life events (e.g.: engagement, marriage, properly moving to England from Minnesota in the States, and piles of immigration paperwork and visas to allow me to be here legally with the man I love) before I began calling myself an artist and writer. Even when "Artist" and "Writer" became the norms of my identity, I still got sweaty armpits when I let myself be known. Returning to Minnesota in 2017, I knew my creative work wasn't at the bottom of the barrel; being an artist and writer is the core of who I am. It's what I can offer to the world. I overcame a lot in those Minnesota years with regard to my creative work and soul. It eventually became clear that moving home to Leeds, where I had transformed into my creative true self was what needed to happen. In 2022, I visited friends and family in the UK. In 2023, I built bridges during a trip around the UK. In 2024, Max and I moved and settled in the UK—again. 2022 is when I had begun writing poems for people with my typewriter on the spot and in live settings. You can read poems I wrote in Poems For My People: Community, Volume 9 (a.k.a.: "the grey book"). The poems in this collection were written after settling and once I've begun LIVING here again, in the cold, wet, windy gloriousness of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. I love England. I love Yorkshire. I love Leeds. I love…my home. I hope at least one of these 100 poems written for individuals help you connect with the recipients somehow with a sense of being seen, heard, known. I am so glad you are here. On days that feel overly grey, dull…overly cold or wet or windy (and even those that feel sunny)…I hope you can find solace with me, living in these pages. Thank you for being here. Happy Reading! Molly x