Dreamcatcher by Valerie Parente
To catch a dream
you must live with the thought
as if your dream
is already caught.
All you found in your sleep
cannot be lost
just write it down
to manifest the plot.
You’ve seen if before
you will see it again
this time, awake
the way you imagined.
Your dreams are manifestations of your mind.
Your mind is a manifestation of the universe.
Your universe is a manifestation of your dreams.
Creation never ends, it only morphs.
– Valerie Parente (1-4-2025)
Echo Chamber by Valerie Parente
Reverberate
between polar opposite walls
two sides polarized
same anger, different drawls.
Surround yourself
by the hard headed
it’s like a mirror
just noise with a reflection.
The ideas you bring into the world
have a way of profound growth
as long as there’s a hardened surface
they come back one hundred fold.
This chamber, you made
thinking if the space is formal
then you can enact real change
but alas, we talk ourselves in circles.
Now did you know if it happens quick enough
the human ear can never tell
the difference between original sound
and the echoes from someone else?
So talk slow, listen carefully,
go outside, don’t stay in one room,
or the walls of your echo chamber
will eventually close in on you.
– Valerie Parente (12-7-2024)
In The Flesh by Valerie Parente
For so long, skin to skin
was only in my mind
touch meant company
and I lived in solitary confines.
You were an idea
that I somehow managed to flesh out
I’d call it a miracle
but the truth is I never had a doubt.
What’s meant to be
has always been
and that is why
it just makes sense
that I found you
where and when;
my dream come true
in the flesh.
– Valerie Parente (10-29-2024)
Alchemy by Valerie Parente
Art
is just alchemy to the 5 senses
transforming the “pain in here”
into something beautiful in the atmosphere.
The Artist
can disturb or it can delight
evoking a feeling from the reeling
of their individual healing.
– Valerie Parente (11-24-2024)
Shape Shifter by Valerie Parente
Have you ever heard
of the Shape Shifter?
She changes form
to fit her mister.
Shape Shifters are not born
they are girls once raised
by those who were supposed to
show them praise.
No one protected her
or taught her to question
why man’s needs come first
and hers come second.
Here lies red dotted lines
and the pen is his
it’s a calculated path
so she does not trip.
The Shape Shifter has no passion
just sheer dread
that she’ll have to confront
the girl in her head.
And if you asked her
who she really is
she wouldn’t have an answer
aside from “someone’s Mrs.”
A Bad Precedent by Valerie Parente
Everybody in the present tense
says, “You set a very bad precedent,”
two polar opposite sides polarized
wanting so badly to be ostracized
and never compared to the other side
as if one could ever see themself as the bad guy
when in reality each person is the protagonist
in their own book of ethics and common sense.
But what if I told you, you share the same frustration
and picked a side out of sheer desperation?
Why can’t you see, you’re not so different after all
when it comes to the problems you want to solve?
You are more alike than you realize
and I wish everyone just realized it’s a lie
that the content of character is black and white.
Everybody points fingers to who they think sets the “bad precedent”
acting with the same exact anger, just a different side of the fence.
And the truth is your anger says less about who you oppose
and more about the system that failed you both.
Dear Darkling by Valerie Parente
You are the symbol of pain becoming beauty
featherless wings
hope withstanding mood swings
sprouting from a spine
where stance is a nuisance
so you arch your back
like the moon and its exuberance
and though you come from the aether
your experience is human;
so fear not, dear darkling
you have become the blueprint
of finding beauty in darkness
now the teacher, once the student.
As above, you knew your worth
so below, you went and proved it.
– Valerie Parente (10-26-2024)
Seaglass by Valerie Parente
You are seaglass;
look how far you’ve come
from a jagged past,
when they tried to treat you
like you were trash,
but the world had plans
other than that,
using ebbs and flows
so you could adapt,
soften the blows
because you’re seaglass;
you drifted afar
but then you came back,
softer than before
because you’re seaglass.
– Valerie Parente (10-11-2024)
Goddess by Valerie Parente
We call it the will of God
though women bear that cross
for it is them who represent
the concept of consequence
and if the world was honest
we’d say it came from a Goddess.
Therein lies, a tale as old as time;
how it is man who crucifies
the ones who wholeheartedly know
the magnificent power that they hold.
– Valerie Parente (9-28-2024)
Free In My Own Skin by Valerie Parente
If there were no men I’d be naked all of the time.
If there was no threat I’d be making my own highs.
If there was no sex I’d be vacant in my mind.
And I am compelled to be a sin in their eyes.
I don’t do provocative for them, I do it for me
because being feminine makes me feel free
and the fact that that’s a danger to society
is nothing short of chauvinism at its peak.
– Valerie Parente (7-11-2024)
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