Respect is earned and not given
Don't expect an attendance ribbon
No petty compliments, no kind lies
Only truth seen through different eyes

We may be harsh, we don't mince words
We value truth even when it hurts
To plant roses we must break the earth
Challenges let us prove our worth

Startling set of subtleties laced between the shadows of common things
The shred of darling darkness you've disgraced by denying it the light
Admire the simple songs, ignore the undertones hiding between the notes
Versing the sunrise, ignoring the dewy tears in Apollo's eyes
A masterpiece can't be complete without the sum of invisible brush strokes
Secondary shadows playing with our perceptions, slip through the seams
They are quietly quintessential, unnoticeably indispensable
Writing anonymous autographs in photographs & autobiographies in poetry

She sews her wounds with silver thread
Not all storm clouds bear silver linings, you were mislead
Silver scars shimmer in the sun
Beautiful reminders of the battles that she's won

Find me here right at home
By the leaves where I was grown
Find me calling out all alone
For a love I'd never known.
Find your courage through the fall
By your return the frost will thaw
Discover we were never alone at all

I know I’ve been away
For a little while
I’d like to tell myself to bring it back
But let me stay a little bit unconquerable
A little piece of me, a piece of you
All tangled up and hidden away
Quiet ascendance  
Finding what my former self had tangled up
In savage, bitter knots of
Doubt and fear
Unraveled now by the acceptance
Sweet ascendance
Leaving me naked now in my reflections
But the less I hide, the less you see
And the more I come to relish in that victory