Self Imposed by Valerie Parente
I know what it’s like
to hold your breath for a miracle
only to find out
the miracle is being able to breathe.
– Valerie Parente (7-2-2023)
Self Imposed
Ravenheart: These Veins Are Not In Vain (A Fantasy Chronicle)
Ravenheart:
These Veins Are Not In Vain (A Fantasy Chronicle)
by Valerie Parente
The veins on her hands
like trees with no leaves
black and branching out
along her anatomy.
That ravenheart pumped,
her sanctum of midnight,
filtering the darkness
in the dead of the night.
It only hurts a little
to be made of this blood
she got used to the pain
and the love it’s made of.
She looks to her veins
and knows they’re not in vain
because with these hands
she learned to create.
Since her birth in the thunder
she whispered before her slumber
a promise the shadows bid unto her
these words of ancient scripture,
“Take this black hole
and make it whole
feed that world
no others know.
Use great stress
to create great depth
and with this alchemy
you destroy fear of death.”
– Valerie Parente (6-9-2023)
Stony Brook
Stony Brook by Valerie Parente
Words about my self are so cold
because this conscious stream is frozen.
I’m making faces under the surface
in the name of what’s unspoken.
I questioned life on solid ground,
but I never stood a chance
at clinging to the rocks
that blistered my own hands.
Underneath the ice I laid on
was an isolation I schemed
where I was swept away by the current
as the current swept by me.
I still cross that stony brook
but I know better this time
holding my own breath
in a space so traumatized.
– Valerie Parente (5-26-2023)
Nervous Habit
Nervous Habit by Valerie Parente
When I’m nervous
I draw trees.
Picture them naked
in the breeze.
– Valerie Parente (5-18-2023)
Her
Her by Valerie Parente
You never knew her
You knew of her
And the way
She played with fire
Just like every
Woman prior
Who learned the hard way
To be the wiser
Against the system
That would conspire
To dim the light
From her lighter.
A scarlet red
She is a fighter
Among the flames
She has grown brighter.
– Valerie Parente (5-21-2023)
Ravenheart: The Prophecy (A Fantasy Chronicle)
Ravenheart: The Prophecy by Valerie Parente
She who hosts
the ravenheart
will lead a life
in the dark.
When, and only when
she feels the sun’s rays
will she find the strength
to be brave.
– Valerie Parente (4-28-2023)
The Grand Review (A Fantasy Chronicle)
The Grand Review by Valerie Parente
Now an enlightened Moonchild, Elissa claimed
the greatest discovery of the human race.
And with a quill pen dancing between fingers
she wrote in kraken ink, the law of existence.
When you have died
you review your life.
This is called the Grand Review
and it’s when you view life as you.
Right now, what you are witnessing
is also called, Living.
How..? You might ask.
Everything you endure is the past.
You think right now you are alive
but you have already died
a covert angel, playing it all out
but it feels like you’re here and now
and your very sense of the present
is proof of your everlasting presence.
When you return to your angel form you’ll admit
it does not feel so dark, does it?
Death is one with your life form,
a dual state you cannot hide from.
Little human, cry no more.
You died when you were born.
Do not fear death,
you’re doing it every moment.
– Valerie Parente (4-23-2023)
Ravenheart: Believe In Me (A Fantasy Chronicle)
Believe In Me (A Fantasy Chronicle) by Valerie Parente
Illihana grabbed his collar
and begged him in her grief,
“Believe me when I say
don’t believe in me.
I cannot be the girl
that you need me to be.
With this black hole in my chest
and my heart on my sleeve
it’s only a matter of time
before I collapse to gravity.”
But there was nothing she could say
to convince Sir Dovetail to admit defeat
because when he looked in her eyes
a glimmer of light was all he could see.
– Valerie Parente (3-14-2023)
Statues
Statues by Valerie Parente
Built up from the ground
by the same hands they tear down,
statues with a soul
sold long ago,
can’t relate to the struggles
of their talentless doubles,
speaking so highly
above the stain of society,
as we scream “Who do you think you are?”
to these egos gone too far,
but we’re starting to catch on
how they’re the statues yet we’re the pawns,
oh how do you think they’d act
if we turned our backs?
No more eye contact with their bluffs
when they look down on us,
but it is them who will break
under the pressure of their hate.
– Valerie Parente (2-26-2023)
Time… It Heals
“Is it true?”
“Is what true?”
“… That time heals the pain?”
“Yes, as time goes by you will smile at their memory instead of cry.”
“Is that because you start to forget about them?”
“No. You do not forget- you remember. You remember all those times together instead of that one moment you lost them.”
– Valerie Parente (1-6-2023)
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