Black and White

Black and White by Valerie Parente

They say the higher you climb,
the harder the fall,
but if you ask me,
that doesn’t make sense at all.
When I’m sky high,
the clouds are my cushion,
the sun is my eyes,
and the moon is my vision.
I see a gradient in everything,
life is not black and white,
“all is good, all is evil,”
is a fallacy old as time.
I see it from the cliff,
the gifted and the damned,
and there’s really no difference,
between those two hands.
Every blessing has its dark hours,
every curse can shed a light,
it’s about finding the gray area,
between the black and white.
The hurt feels so dark,
the hope, a bright light,
the heal, a full moon,
connecting day to night.

– Valerie Parente (4-14-2021)

Celestial Being

Celestial Being by Valerie Parente

I see myself in the moon
because I go through phases too.
I see myself in the stars
because I, too, glow in the dark.
The constellations are my family
they are my home, and all of humanity’s.
Life is incredibly dark, life is incredibly ripe,
life is the way we organize the stellar mind.
Do not give into fear, do not go insane,
this landscape is just a temporary display.
You will be infinite, you will return
when you review all you have learned.

– Valerie Parente (2-5-2021)

Idiosyncratic Pain

Idiosyncratic Pain by Valerie Parente

I don’t want to be known for my pain,
I want to make the most of my pain,
and if that entails
emotions to prevail
in a story that parallels
my particular mental hell
and I can make you understand
a specific circumstance
then all will be fine
’cause baby, I’m one of a kind.

– Valerie Parente (10-22-2020)

A Poetic Manifesto

A Poetic Manifesto by Valerie Parente

What it means to be an artist is that I take my life experiences and process them through a creative filter. My internal world manifests best through the art of written word. As a result, when I’m in pain I might write a “dark” piece. To those who find this work disturbing, this is my rebuttal.

"Scar Tissue"

I have every right to say anything I want to say
because this page is my stage and this is my brain
and the reason you felt uncomfortable when you read it
was because you have resonated with it.
If you become upset knowing that I am broken
then please understand that writing about my mental health
is how I begin to heal myself.

I will never stop emoting and hurting and healing and if any of this is problematic for someone then I pray you find the strength to learn how to be human one day.

– Valerie Parente (5-30-2019)

Dissonant Demons

Dissonant Demons by Valerie Parente

My eyes want to cry
but I’m not sad in my mind.
My body wants to be burned
but my heart is already warm.
I’m trying to think of ways
to hurt myself without causing pain.
These demons, they try to stay relevant,
but my glorious God is not hellbent.

Dissonant Demons

– Valerie Parente (3-4-2019)