The Cycle of Art by Valerie Parente
➔ realizes there’s ugliness in the world
➔ inspires art
➔ art brings beauty into the world
➔ the healing starts
(and repeat)
– Valerie Parente (10-19-2025)
The Cycle of Art
Tag: artistic
Rhyme & Reason
Rhyme & Reason by Valerie Parente
I give the world meaning
applying rhyme and reason
because I can’t bring myself to believe in
thoughts without feelings.
For it all to be worth it
I write it down in verses
externalizing the imperfect
into patterns on the surface.
When I break down the rhythm
like flashing colors in a prism
the nonsensical drivel
starts to sound like wisdom.
I give the world depth
making beauty from the mess.
What is creation if not a breath?
To wipe away the fear of death.
– Valerie Parente (6–12-2025)
Blasphemy
Blasphemy by Valerie Parente
If we keep calling different phrases blasphemy, then
we rid the world of artistic masterpieces…
For nothing is more forbidden
than forbidding words
and nothing is more convincing
than scapegoating a curse;
You give the curse word conviction
when you veil it from the world
so don’t you dare claim indifference
to the power of linguistic terms;
With this tongue, I say, good riddance
to the censorship of artistic forms
you no longer need to be hidden
from man’s constraints and curbs.
– Valerie Parente (3-8-2024)
Divine Design
Divine Design by Valerie Parente
There’s no such thing as coincidence,
there has to be design,
because how can I find the perfect words,
that just so happen to rhyme?
You’re telling me poets are just lucky?
That language just so happens to coincide,
that there’s rhythm to the psyche,
that can be written in artistic lines,
that the material world naturally mirrors,
the effortless world inside my mind?
No, I don’t believe in luck,
I believe in the divine,
based on every one of your points,
used to describe otherwise.
– Valerie Parente (6-15-2021)
Value In Pain
Value In Pain by Valerie Parente
At the end of the day
you are only as valuable as your pain.
Anybody can do good when they feel good
but tell me what you gain
when you’re far from fine.
Do you learn from your broken heart?
Or do you let it deteriorate your mind?
Tell me what you create
when expression is the focal point
and everything else
is no more than background noise.
– Valerie Parente (4-21-2021)
Moonchild Manifesto
Moonchild Manifesto by Valerie Parente
You are a Moonchild.
You embody moods like phases in orbital rotations.
Every moving body comes in cycles
around a world you set your mind to.
That’s when the words begin to flow
like the tides under your gravitational pull.
You fall and you feel and you break,
wondering how others could be so unfazed.
Because you are in love night and day
while the rest are just lost in space.
– Valerie Parente (2-23-2021)
An Artist’s Prerogative
An Artist’s Prerogative by Valerie Parente
If I’m prude
in today’s mood
then that can creep
in my pen’s muse.
But it’s also my prerogative
if I want to be provocative
and I shouldn’t have to explain
just the same.
Call it vanity,
call it obscene,
call it everything you want it to be,
because you say what should be forbidden fruit
based on the very impulses you don’t give in to
and an artist does not need to coincide
with the expressions you try to hide
and I’ll be damned if I start
to censor myself in my art.
Call it explicit,
call it raw,
call it everything I foresaw.
I tried to come up with a million reasons,
an answer to every single grievance
but I realized
in my confines
that I shouldn’t have to justify
how I display what’s on my mind.
It’s my job to evoke a feeling,
that part of you begging for healing,
and if uneasiness comes into play
then those qualms were never meant to stay.
We elicit what we need
to evolve into a higher breed
and artistic expression is that key
making censorship its enemy.
– Valerie Parente (12-27-2020)
Material Girl
Material Girl by Valerie Parente
I like to surround myself with things I find beautiful
because if I don’t create my own sanctuary
then who will?
– Valerie Parente (12-23-2020)
Like Fine China
Like Fine China by Valerie Parente
How can one be so strong and indestructible
yet appear like fine china, so fragile.
Royal blue details drawn on clay
art on top of an artistic display.
Breaking as I break down
a million pieces so jagged and profound.
I could use them to separate my skin
instead I made a vase out of porcelain.
I filled the china like a beautiful bouquet
with flowers that had already decayed
and everybody calls me a sick freak
because I can still see their beauty
but it’s them who fail to see
that dead flowers make great tea
and I’ll sip it as I grieve
remembering how it felt to be
like fine china, too pretty to comprehend
until they break me down again.
– Valerie Parente (10-5-2020)
Art is Magic
“Soul Purpose” by Valerie Parente
Art is Magic by Valerie Parente
“Why do I create the greatest art
when I’m in the greatest pain?”
“Because the artist is a magician
taking something as ugly as heartache
and turning it into something beautiful.
That is the true power in you.”
– Valerie Parente (5-31-2020)
valerieparente 