Witness by Valerie Parente
What is a world
if it has no witness?
This whole big universe
and if consciousness didn’t exist
neither would it.
Reality without mind
means no here or this
no big picture to see
without awareness.
So the next time you feel the slightest bit blue
remember every single beautiful thing that is, was, and will ever be
means nothing without you.
– Valerie Parente (2-21-2026)
Valkyrie by Valerie Parente
They told me to find a knight in shining armor
if I wanted someone to save me
so I polished my nails
and became my own source of bravery.
They told me to dull my shine
so that I wouldn’t distract
then pretended I never had
any power to take back.
They wanted me to yield my worth
and rely on the opposite sex
so I decided to wield my sword
and damn my own distress.
They tried to make me feel small
so I wouldn’t notice
that I am a force
to be reckoned with.
– Valerie Parente (2-20-2026)
I Was Born With Horns by Valerie Parente
How dare you condemn my anatomy
when I was born with horns
it’s in my nature to have free will
what is mine is not yours.
How dare you make a mockery of me
when autonomy came with my birth
it’s in my DNA to choose how I live
what is personal is not discourse.
I decide what is right or wrong
for this body I’ve been squeezed into
that is not up for debate
if that makes me deviant
then innocence never existed in the first place.
– Valerie Parente (2-14-2026)
Seed by Valerie Parente
I had a dream
that somebody asked me
how they can manifest their dreams
and I told them with unwavering certainty,
“First, plant a seed
water it
tend to it
watch it sprout
do it all attentively
then you will see
you are capable of growing something complete
out of something that was once just a belief
then you will understand
how to use your energy.”
– Valerie Parente (2-7-2026)
Meeting You Was A Lot Like Remembering by Valerie Parente
Meeting you
was a lot like remembering
what I wanted
when I thought I’d forgotten.
Being with you
was a lot like recognizing
an answer to a prayer
when it was in the palm of my hands.
Nothing with you ever felt new to me
it felt like waking up and remembering a dream
like you’re just another quality of reality
like space and time and the air we breathe
like rhyme and reason and poetry
like you and me are meant to be.
– Valerie Parente (1-25-2026)
Florescence by Valerie Parente
A flower cannot grow
without drops of rain.
You cannot grow
without tears and pain.
When you hunch over
and the stalks begin to sprout
know that the petals come next
and you can stick this part out.
Bees do not sting
unless they feel threatened
supporting the flowers
until it sends them to heaven.
When you feel meaningless
and without a purpose
remember you have evolved
to coexist on earth’s surface.
It’s in your nature
to mirror nature.
It’s in your blood
to be enough.
– Valerie Parente (1-18-2026)
Night Vision by Valerie Parente
Every night becomes day
and every day becomes night
there is nothing permanent
about this fight that you fight.
When I was young I developed night vision
finding beauty in darkness all around
so I made that my main mission
to paint it all out, to write it all down.
You see these eyes, they adapted
as these pupils grew far and wide
thriving in the day as well as evening
now I’m twice as much alive.
It was scary at first
deciphering the shapes under the shadows
but that’s the glory in growing lucid
what was once a dream is now in your control.
I see you, I see it all,
you can run but you can’t hide,
I will see you again
next time with a third eye.
– Valerie Parente (1-11-2026)
Raven Reverie by Valerie Parente
I had a vision
of a lady in a gown
but it was a bird cage
where a raven could be found.
I saw it all in a dream
a future I could articulate and pronounce
so I plucked a feather from the raven
and I wrote the whole thing down.
I believe in manifestation
and there were hints all around
like that feeling of remembering
when something new played out.
There were moments in my life
where a clue was said out loud
and I knew it was speaking to my soul
because there was no hesitation or doubt.
Every reverie
once suspended in the clouds
like a bird flying in the sky
that always ends up in the ground.
We bring to the earth
ideas from a place so profound
that the very act of thought
transcends all logic and sound.
– Valerie Parente (1-11-2026)
You Are Not Your Bruises by Valerie Parente
Stop identifying
with your bruises,
they’re not permanent
on humans.
It’s a sign of recovery
when the colors form
a reminder that pain
can be endured.
These ruptured blood vessels
they will come and go
they’re only surface level
and will never reach your soul.
– Valerie Parente (1-3-2025)
Taproot by Valerie Parente
Praying
and daydreaming
are one and the same
wanting
and envisioning
share the same face
it starts in the body
then goes out in space
it starts in the soil
then branches away.
I used to think falling to my knees was only for begging
but it’s really for manifesting
because when you’re down on your knees
you’re closer to the ground
closer to the seeds
where it all sprouts out.
– Valerie Parente (12-25-2025)
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