The mirror splits,
shattering the myth of who you think you are,
shards of self-reflection scattered across the floor.
Each sliver, a truth, biting and blood-stained,
but you stand there, fists unclenched,
eyes wide open.

Growth comes crawling on jagged knees,
this is not a clean ascent,
no golden stairs to carry you up.
It's a wrestle with ghosts,
the ones you've buried with heavy hands,
with silence, with denial.

You cannot flee this reckoning,
the walls close in like truth's rib cage,
breathing you in.
But to run is to shrink,
to fold yourself back into the cocoon of lies
that feels like safety,
but is nothing more than a beautiful cage.

What you accept,
what you let press its weight against your bones,
it cracks you open,
stretching your spine towards a brutal freedom.

The light gets sharper the deeper you go,
splitting skin, unraveling narratives.
You grow only as far as you dare to fall,
not down, but inward.

There is a voice that doesn't use words. Listen.
It whispers in the rustle of leaves,
In the pause between a heartbeat,
In the quiet hum of dawn before the world awakens.

It's a song that stirs the soul,
Soft as the breath of a sleeping child,
Yet vast as the ocean's endless call.

This voice is ancient, older than time,
Born from the stars and the dust of the earth.
It carries the wisdom of ages untold,
A knowing beyond the clamour of thought.

A truth that lives beneath the surface,
Of all that we see, and all we pretend to know.
It speaks in the dance of the wind,
In the stillness of twilight.

When the day sighs into night,
And shadows stretch long across the land.
It is in the eyes of the old and the innocent,
In the spaces between the lines of a love letter,
Or the quiet ache of a heart mending slowly.

This voice cannot be grasped,
It cannot be chased or claimed.
It comes when the mind is silent,
When the heart surrenders its restlessness.

It rises in the moments when you are,
No longer seeking, but simply being.
When the soul listens with more than ears,
For there are languages older than words.

Songs written in the pulse of life itself,
And if you listen, truly listen;
You will hear it: the voice of the universe,
Calling you home.
To a place where words fall away,
And all that remains is knowing.

The truth, a mirror so clear and deep,
Where shadows hide, where secrets sleep.
It calls to us, like winds through trees,
Whispering softly, "Come, be free."

But freedom, friend, is never light,
It asks for courage, asks for sight.
For in this glass, what do we see?
Our flaws, our fears, our frailty.

Yet truth is kind, though hard to hold,
A fire that cleanses, bright and bold.
It strips away the masks we wear,
Reveals the soul, both pure and bare.

To grow, we must not turn and flee,
From all we are, from all we see.
For growth is born from truth embraced,
Not from the lies we chase in haste.

The heart expands when it can face,
Its own mistakes, its own disgrace.
And in that knowing, there's a grace,
That leads us to a higher place.

For strength is found not in denial,
But in the honesty of the trial.
The more we accept, the more we learn,
Through pain, through joy, through fires we burn.

And those who grow are those who stay,
Who do not flinch or run away.
For they have learned that to be whole,
Requires a reckoning with the soul.

So stand before that mirrored truth,
Embrace your age, embrace your youth.
For only then can you ascend,
And find the strength to rise, to mend.

The deeper you look, the more you'll find,
The growth of heart, the growth of mind.
In truth, there lies the power to be,
Unbroken, boundless, and truly free.

Books gather dust in closed rooms,
their spines like stiffened backs,
knowledge locked in pages,
curled tight like fists.

All it takes is the crack of a cover
to spill ink into the air,
to paint the world in colours we've never seen.

Minds, too, fold in on themselves,
like umbrellas in the rain,
useless when clutched shut,
their potential drenched
in ignorance's downpour.

But open and they bloom,
each rib unfurling like a petal,
catching storms, turning deluge into poetry.

There's no shelter in stagnation,
no wisdom in walls.
Books, minds, umbrellas
they were never meant to stay closed.
Only when we risk the rain can we finally see the sun.

If you don't feel the joy when they rise
When your friend's success shines bright in the skies,
Then what bond do you hold, what claim do you share,
If your heart is unmoved by the heights they dare?

For friendship is woven from threads pure and deep,
It sings with their laughter, it cries when they weep.
It's not just a name, not a casual thread,
But a tapestry woven with words left unsaid.

When their light starts to shine, like the dawn on the sea,
Your heart should ignite, just as wild, just as free.
For true friends are mirrors of joy and of grace,
Reflecting each triumph, each challenge they face.

It's not about envy, nor wishing for more,
But standing beside them as their spirit soars.
In their joy, you find yours, in their glow, you are bright,
For their victories lift you like stars in the night.

If you don't feel the thrill when they take to the air,
If you can't feel their joy, like the wind in your hair,
Then what is the meaning of the bond you defend,
If you don't get excited, then you're not a friend.

For friendship is sacred, a fire that is shared,
It's the light in their eyes when you show that you care.
So, lift them, adore them, let your spirit entwine,
In their success, find joy that's as fierce as it's fine.

Be their pillar, their cheer, with love on display,
For a friend, true in heart, will forever stay.

The stone in the road, sharp-edged, scraping the soles,
is it burden, or a shift in the wind?
A scream might rise, teeth bared against fate,
but listen closely, in its echo is the sound of wings.

The earth turns slow,
gravel underfoot bruises the skin,
but that sting, that ache,
is the pulse of the universe saying, Move.

The fall is not the breaking;
it is the breath that finds your lungs anew,
as you turn and twist into directions
you had never dreamed,
the unseen galaxies in your bones waking up.

The obstacle is the heartbeat of change,
a violent push, a whisper in disguise,
hurling you to a horizon you hadn’t thought to reach.
What you thought was in the way was only clearing it.

Communication is key,
A phrase like a door, but only half-ajar.
We speak, syllables tumbling like stones,
but do you listen,
or just wait for your turn to reply?

The words I carve from my breath,
sharp-edged and raw,
I offer them to you like a map,
tracing the scars of my mind,
the fractures of my heart.

But if your eyes glaze,
a wall of glass, reflecting only yourself,
then why do I bleed words?
Why do I bother?

It's not the saying, but the hearing,
the seeing beneath the surface,
the understanding stitched between the lines,
that binds us together.

Otherwise, we are just noise
colliding voices in a silent room,
talking to the walls,
while pretending we're understood.

So, if I speak, don't just nod.
Unravel my meaning,
see where I stand in the shadows of these words.
Or else, we're just two monologues,
adrift, never really speaking at all.