The Weight of Memories by Valerie Parente
Memories carry weight.
I always have a memory of you
and you always have a memory of me
but when one person passes
that weight is no longer split evenly
all of a sudden it’s all on you
to carry all the moments we perceived
and memories all to one person
is what we call grief.
It is painful, but take it as an honor
that your loved one imparted them to you
now you get to carry them with you
in everything you do.
– Valerie Parente (1-1-2025)
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)
Supernova by Valerie Parente
A dying star
is still a star, nevertheless
and when it goes out
a burst of light will be its last breath
leaving behind
shockwaves, so complex
the world cannot help
but feel its effects.
We may call it space
but there is no emptiness
for memories will linger
far past any death.
– Valerie Parente (2-16-2025)
Goodbye Girlhood by Valerie Parente
She knew it,
the day her Girlhood was dead and gone
it wasn’t a loss of innocence
in fact, it wasn’t even a loss.
Instead of deprivation
she was filled with awe
that her Girlhood even existed
regardless of how long.
In its place
gratitude had spawned
and she didn’t lament
instead she felt strong.
She was enriched
by who she once was
and she returned to the earth
to give back to a greater cause.
There is a prize with death
when you see life from above
and from that vantage point
you know how far you’ve come.
You’ll never know it was worth it
until the end of the song
and when you listen from a distance
you’ll know you’re where you belong.
– Valerie Parente (2-16-2024)
The Carrier by Valerie Parente
You have been given the greatest honor
when your loved one is visible no longer
and now you get to carry them with you
in everything that you do.
It will be challenging some days
but you will always find the strength
because wherever there is hurt
there was love there first.
There will be confusion but it always comes back
to this everlasting fact:
that loved ones remain forever within
so you never have to be alone again.
– Valerie Parente (5-16-2022)
Hummingbird (A Loved One Says Hi) by Valerie Parente
We spoke of her
while tears overflowed
remembering our love
when it had a place to go.
That was when
our pain became borrowed
nature came by
and acknowledged the sorrow.
A sweet hummingbird
tapped on the window twice
that little girl came back
to show us she’s alright.
And even if
that body wasn’t hers
it still sparked
a sweet reminder.
We won’t know the truth
but we do know this
that another being’s life
made us think of her image.
What remains true
is the shape of nature
a circle of incarnations
being made by a maker.
Not in this life
can I ever be sure
that the hummingbird
was really her.
But what I am sure of
is a feeling so profound
that this little bird’s life
is tied to where she is now.
– Valerie Parente (7-24-2021)
Foliage by Valerie Parente
This safe haven,
where you can smell the foliage,
leaflets with an amber bruise,
the fresh green Godsend.
These leaves that fall,
they came and they went,
seasons of distress and joy,
while you try to comprehend.
There is pain in bare trees,
skeletal and sharply bent,
you wait, you hibernate,
every year it feels like the end.
You think your pain is gone,
when you are dead,
but it’s the “you” that’s gone,
as your identity transcends.
– Valerie Parente (5-17-2021)
The Guardian Angel Complex by Valerie Parente
When you lose a friendship, it creates a hole,
you notice all the places you used to go,
and a crater in the shape of another soul.
But when you lose the life of a friend,
there is a Guardian Angel Complex,
and you still feel their spirit in your chest.
This is precisely why my worst grief is not from death
but from the loss of a relationship.
I know that in death there is peace,
in death, you are still with me.
But when a relationship meets its demise
it fades with all the good times.
Wipe your tears, there is no need to cry,
at the completion of someone’s life.
In the physical world someone can fade away
but in death they materialize into an emotional state.
Do not make grief the enemy,
grief is the universe’s way of hinting at peace.
When there is loss of life and you feel disbelief
that dissonant feeling is all the proof you need
that the souls that leave with love, live on infinitely.
– Valerie Parente (2-9-2021)
Features “Looking At The World Upside Down”, “Tangled”, and “Worth It”
from Rather Be Haunted on Amazon.com
Features “Potential In Action”, “Good Grief”,
and “Playing With Storms (Diagnose Me)”
from Rather Be Haunted on Amazon.com
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