I knew I had grown when:
I stopped asking
What do they think of me?
And started to question,
What do I think of them?

At one point in life,
This is what I dreamt of.
I thought it all made sense.
So why am I here
Peering over the fence?

I sat in a pool of tears
And felt an emptiness inside,
They said it would come in waves
And I was crashing against the tides.
For losing those you love
There is no greater suffering,
But what is grief
If not love, persevering.

I look up to the sky
Are you really there?
Are you around me?
Are you everywhere?
Near or far
I just know
That I want to be
Wherever you are.

We all have our ways
Of staying afloat.
We may be in the same storm
But we are not in the same boat.

You wanted me to be silver,
It quickly turned you cold.
If only you opened your eyes,
And saw I was solid gold.

As a child we’re told
It’s sticks and stones
That will break your bones
And words that will never hurt
But what happens when
Those words continue to ring in your ear
From the sharpest of tongues
Progressing through life
Still haunting you at every turn.

I’ve never understood the phrase
Your kindness is your weakness.
If it’s weak being kind in a world
That is so often cruel,
Then I will happily be
The exception to the rule.

They just weren’t you,
So I picked them apart
And threw the pieces on the floor.
If only I knew
They just weren’t you.

It was never going to take long
For the world to show us it’s colour
What was once blue and green
Just gets duller

If you look over the fence
And happen to see,
That your neighbours grass
Looks as green as can be,
Don’t find yourself full of envy
And wish it be gone,  
Instead, water and nurture the very grass
That you are standing on.

Being on your own
Those thoughts seem loud,
But sometimes the loneliest place
Is being in a crowd.

Then snake was always you.
And the irony is,
I shed my skin
And left you.

On the brightest of days you were by my side,
And on the darkness of days you chose to hide.

If time is a healer
Why has nothing changed?
I feel the pain of your loss
Like it happened yesterday.
If time is a healer
Why does it feel worse?
Another day without you
On this lonely earth.
Time is not a healer.
When you took your last breath
The clock stopped ticking
The very moment you left.

Life is smoke and mirrors.
I saw the tears of a clown,
And knew the laughter was fake.
It showed me sadness can come
With a smile on your face.

We must speak out now,
And pull the rug from where it was swept.
It’s our duty to take action
For the behaviour you ignore,
Is the behaviour you accept.

In life she will almost suffer
Each and every day.
Yet she will show she’s a warrior
In every single way.

With hurt in her heart
She’ll get things done.
Because thats what it means
To be a woman.

In life we will look back,
Wishing we did this,
And we didn’t do that.
But one regret,
That will never play on your mind,
Is in those moments when
You chose to be kind.

I was once a diamond in the rough.
I went through the dirt
And almost got stuck.
Yet I lasted the test of time.
Now watch me sparkle,
It’s my time to shine.

I had to let go,
Our love became brittle.
I was tired of giving too much
For too little.

Sometimes it’s better to walk away,
Holding your head high above the ground.
Sometimes it’s the silence,
That makes the loudest sound.

You strung me along
Fed me with hope
All for you
To hand me the rope.

You weathered a storm
Withstood all the heat
Even when you felt voiceless
Even when you felt weak
Yet there alone you stood
When you felt you had no power
Beautiful and radiant
Just like a sunflower

Sometimes love is  
What we show.
Sometimes love is
Letting go.

Dear Hansel,
Over my eyes
You pulled the wool,
I saw the magic
And my heart felt full.

But you were full of deceit
It was all a lie,
You strung me along
Then waved goodbye.

I was left all alone
Feeling numb,
Why did I follow
Those **** breadcrumbs.

You looked at me
And wanted to see her,
But I wasn’t her
And that was my beauty.

You have to be cruel to be kind
Just doesn’t make sense.
Unlike a gin and tonic.
If anything it’s oxymoronic.

Take that risk.
I promise you this,
You will finally live,
And no longer exist.

In the beginning it was magic,
With that came deceit.
Then the mask came off
And finally, you were seen.

When you took your last breath
It’s like I took mine too
How am I supposed to live
Without you?

Thinking is a blessing and a curse.
As humans we jump to conclusions and can assume the worst.

Do I look ok? Is she my friend?
I know I’m driving him over the bend.

Do you think giraffes worry, as humans do?
Is my neck too long? Is my tongue too blue?

I guess they just eat their leaves and do what they can.
It is a strange thing being a human.

When I ask your goal
You look at me and say,
I want to be happy and normal,
And not feel this way.
There’s a myth that I must dispel,
A lie that need be gone,
The truth is happiness is a direction
And not a destination.

When I finally woke
I saw you were never for me.
I looked at you
And saw what I wanted to see.
Not for who you were
But for who you could be.

Grief and time is a paradox.
It feels like yesterday
You left me without a trace,
And yet it seems like forever
Since I’ve seen your face.

With every fall,
She picks herself up,
Finds an inner strength,
Reminding her she’s tough.
She walks on,
Never looking back,
Holding on to those words,
That hope dies last.

Anxiety feels like I’m not the real me.
The real me is locked in a cage
And I don’t have the key.

Pay attention to what is said,
It’s not always in the word.
Anyone can listen,
But not everyone is heard.

You broke her into a thousand pieces
So you could find your missing one.

When you are alone
Those dark days seem like forever
But always remember
You are the sky
And everything else is the weather

It wasn’t the goodbye
That sent me off track,
It was the fact I waited for so long
And you didn’t come back.

We built a solid foundation
But cracks began to grow
Then the paint wore off
And true colours started to show.

It’s okay to fail,
When you begin.
In life you learn from your losses,
And never your wins.

To abuse another,
Guilt you will feel.
Yet abusing yourself,
Seems like no big deal.

In each line, there’s a meaning,
Each word, a hidden truth.
There’s a life of pain and here lies the proof.

The wires in my brain,
Became completed unattached;
Everything I loved
Never seemed to love me back.

When all you see is storms
And grey clouds in view,
Know that this is temporary
For the sky will always remain blue.

You searched high and low, far and wide,
But never did you realise,
That what you needed was in front of your very own eyes.

I had a slow start.
Life passed me by.
Everyone moved on,
In the blink of an eye.
But, no matter how quiet the start,
Or gradual the pace,
Remember it’s the tortoise  
Who wins the race.

To you I’m too quiet
And you may think that I’m a bore,
But I chose my words carefully
And my company even more.