Southwind is a collection that is two decades in the making as the section entitled "1993" was written while the poet was an undergraduate studying chemistry and living on campus as a sophomore. Engrossed in the whirlwind of his first romance and listening to a peculiar style of jazz music, he found his Muse for the first time. The combination of stresses from self-supporting himself as a student, working while trying to study rigorous courses, and navigating the precariousness of his first romantic relationship created the duende he refers to in many of his other collections of poems.