Intrinsic by Valerie Parente
The world is nothing
if it goes unseen
so I must mean something
in the grand scheme.
– Valerie Parente (5-1-2025)
Intrinsic
Category: Poetry
Observer Effect
Observer Effect by Valerie Parente
I once had an incredibly vivid dream
that I was conducting an experiment, and I died
and I watched the wall I was looking at
lose a richness only living eyes could provide.
They say you can see the fluidness of life
vanish from a dead person’s eyes
but it actually goes both ways
my ghost saw the same wall, and it was dry.
The world is missing something too
when it is no longer witnessed by a life
I discovered that the simple act of observation
gave the inanimate a quality I can’t describe.
When I’m awake, you know they say
that all matter has its own vital signs
what might be breath in a living body
might be in a wavelength collapsed time.
It all sounds crazy outside of slumber
but my lucid slumber helped me recognize
that miracles like life extend our bodies
and what is on the outside is as divine as you and I.
– Valerie Parente (4-27-2025)
Semi-Lucid
Semi-Lucid by Valerie Parente
I have semi-lucid dreams
with a blurry kind of vividness
I am aware of my surroundings
but I am just a witness
I cannot actively make decisions
prefrontal cortex with a stillness
I go on watching, learning
yet I am somehow complicit
like I can choose my moves
but my stance can only pivot
through endless possibilities
yet my discretion has a limit.
I think being semi-lucid
mirrors my awake state
when it comes to my obsessions
and the anxiety they create
because I am like a witness
I watch myself fixate
and all I can do is bystand
hoping others can separate
the me that knows it’s crazy
with the me that’s crazy anyways.
When the moon crosses the sky
and the dreamcatcher chases me alive
I am tripping through the semi-lucid
rediscovering the fabric of my mind.
– Valerie Parente (4-26-2025)
The Default
The Default by Valerie Parente
The default is compassion
but when it comes to yourself, it’s dissatisfaction.
So why can’t you grant yourself the grace
you so easily give others in the same headspace?
Why when perspective is first person
is the expectation to be perfect?
You are someone else’s someone else,
and if you can identify their cry for help
why can’t you do the same
when it comes to your own brain?
You have so much empathy for the human condition,
step outside yourself and listen,
everything you go through, someone else can relate to,
it’s time to change the default settings and reboot.
– Valerie Parente (4-19-2025)
Warrior Princess
Warrior Princess by Valerie Parente
Why be a damsel in distress
when you can be a warrior princess?
Be your own champion
instead of just waiting.
Get up and take action
and feel a new kind of passion
that does not heat or cool
on the whim of a man’s mood.
If you’re proud and poised
dictated by your own choice
they say you’re a tramp
because you don’t belong to a man
so screw being appraised
by your last, not first name.
You are entitled when provoked,
swing the sword on your own!
You are not to apologize
to settle or compromise
for the system thrust forth
the moment you were born.
You were always a warrior deep down
that’s why they created a crown
to distract you with a wish
to be a trophy to those you kiss.
It may sound crazy
but in this world it’s an act of bravery
to dare to feel beautiful
without a man’s approval.
You are a warrior princess
exquisite just because you exist
as you, your own being
despite what fairytales were preaching.
– Valerie Parente (4-13-2025)
Get A Grip
Get A Grip by Valerie Parente
They said “Get a grip!”
but I wouldn’t listen
because my favorite place
used to be in my head
but that wasn’t a place
it was a method
of coping with all
that remained unsaid
in the real world
when I felt abandoned
so I taught myself
to daydream instead.
It wasn’t until
that grip loosened
I learned who I was
and felt alive again.
I was able to create
when I’d reflect
and it was actually better
than I could ever imagine.
No more make believe
no more need to pretend
flesh and bone was superior
even if it bled.
You are my totem
my rhyme and reason
the thing that reminds me
that I am human.
You are my awakening
my reality check
the thing that made it all
begin to make sense.
You are now my favorite place
an existence I can understand
and when they say “get a grip”
I will hold onto your hand.
– Valerie Parente (4-10-2025)
Incarnate
Incarnate by Valerie Parente
If the soul is something invisible
then why do certain songs make my soul feel seen?
And if my consciousness is divisible
then why do centuries of stories have the same theme?
If I didn’t choose this body
then why do I pick my own brain?
If I didn’t choose this journey
then why did I incarnate?
If true essence is impossible to capture
then why can art mirror my mind?
If there is no such thing as life after
then why does lost love linger behind?
I don’t think anyone really knows
what we’re doing here
but if there was ever a clue
it wouldn’t be in what makes sense, but how we feel.
– Valerie Parente (4-6-2025)
The False Promise of the Damsel in Distress
The False Promise of the Damsel in Distress
by Valerie Parente
I don’t think enough girls were taught the difference
between being in love and being obsessed,
so many stories of womanhood
were really stories of sickness,
that to attract a man
you have to be a damsel in distress,
that happily ever after was the goal
and your journey before was meaningless.
They taught us that pity
means he endlessly cares
and that negative attention
means love is in the air.
They said there has to be an obstacle
you can only overcome with him there,
that your accomplishments are null
unless a prince witnessed the despair.
So here’s to the girls
who broke their own hearts
taking on the damsel archetype
before adulthood could even start.
We are not ruined beyond repair,
we’re just a little scarred;
may we raise our daughters
as we raise our bars.
– Valerie Parente (3-28-2025)
A Wordsmith, The Original Spellcaster
A Wordsmith, The Original Spellcaster by Valerie Parente
Words.
They are magic spells.
That’s why they call it spelling
when you string these symbols together
and create meaning out of them
to cast what’s inside your head out into the atmosphere
to evoke emotions and reactions out of your peers.
The wordsmith,
the original spellcaster.
The poet,
the witch of language pastures.
The scholar,
the sage becoming a master.
The linguist
the manipulator of matter.
Free speech,
the enchantment we must look after.
– Valerie Parente (3-23-2025)
Pull
Pull by Valerie Parente
She feels the pull
of light in equal amounts
the full fledged growth
from a garden she’s planting now.
They say it’s a green thumb
but it’s more like a claw on her hand
the one she used to scrape the dirt
then watch the seeds turn to plants.
This is no burial
it’s a call to rise
for a girl to become the woman
like a flower growing towards the light.
That light is her future self
smiling from above
a perfect reflection
of the frown she came from.
This pull she felt since she was young,
it was always in her view
and the only thing that is with you 100% of the time…
make no mistake, it is future you.
– Valerie Parente (3-22-2025)
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