Tag: healing

The Damsel & The Demon OUT NOW

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The Damsel & The Demon by Valerie Parente

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The Damsel & The Demon is a poetry/fantasy story hybrid (verse novel) meant to be an allegory for the healing process, whether that be healing from addiction, a toxic relationship, a traumatic event, or anything in between. Valerie drew inspiration from her personal struggle with obsessive compulsive disorder and anorexia to create this Allegory for Healing through the lens of the main character, Daphne. For both Daphne and Valerie, fleeting feelings can only exist as fixations, and the rhythmic stanzas of an internal dialogue, playing like poetry, is the conduit between the mentally disordered author and the hexed protagonist of this story. There is so much beauty in healing, but healing is still ever so messy, uncovering darkness where we expected light and vice versa. Determined to create this massive poem with no help from search engines or AI, Valerie made it her mission to come up with every rhyme on her own; turning to the internet for help was forbidden. As a result, The Damsel & The Demon is an authentic fantastical dark fairytale scripture rich with revelations and an aim to help readers everywhere see themselves in the damsel archetype as well as the ailment they struggle to separate from in the demon.

Valerie Parente is a writer and artist from Massachusetts whose bodies of work often explore the theme, “Finding beauty in darkness” and general mental health awareness.

Summoning

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Summoning by Valerie Parente

They told me to face my demons
but my demons have the same face as me
so I looked myself in the mirror
and said “you don’t scare me” on repeat.

Funny how I possess these demons within myself
yet they come out to possess me
getting sick was a summoning by accident
deciding to heal was a summoning purposefully.

Like a ritual, the darkness resurfaces
but you’ll realize, through this hell
that you are also your own guardian angel
because only you can save yourself.

– Valerie Parente (8-18-2025)

Trigger

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Trigger by Valerie Parente

How many people
roam around the world
trying not to be triggered
because the everyday man in the everyday trance
doesn’t understand
that the recovery phase
isn’t the same as unfazed.

It creeps up on you
these triggers
in the middle of a good day with a smile on your face
but you’re not okay
and the others don’t have a clue
that there’s a weapon inside of you
in the shape of a thought
waiting to be set off.

Therein lies the trickiness
of mental illness;
it’s invisible to everyone else
so we never know when we trigger it.

But there’s a beauty in you
that should be mentioned;
that you don’t go around the world
being unaffected.

Your triggers make you human
through and through
because what is a flawless mind
but a lesser version of me and you.

– Valerie Parente (6-22-2025)

Mermaid Hair & A Little Black Dress

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Mermaid Hair & A Little Black Dress
by Valerie Parente

Mermaid hair and a little black dress
one for my inner child
one for her last breath.

Because I wasn’t ready
to grow up just yet
so when I felt wronged
I found poetic justice.

They said “what do you want to be when you grow up?”
and I said “a girl with mermaid hair”
for all the times as a kid
that I was too scared
of the fateful hour glass
and its ground of sand
so I stuck my head in the clouds
not all quite there
regressing and digressing
into my own fairy tale.

They said “dress as the impression you want to give”
so I wore a little black dress
’cause black goes with everything
and I’m an artist
breaking down reality
so it all makes sense
to little kid me
and the woman she respects
so that one fateful day
the heart in my chest
will end its marathon
with little to no regrets.

– Valerie Parente (5-11-2025)

Flood

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Flood by Valerie Parente

Numb
numb
numb
then like a flood
I felt it all
grief, guilt, but most of all
the feeling of being loved
and I could never be mad
at the way my loved ones loved me
when I was incapable
of feeling sorry
because they were the ones that cared
when I was too scared
and they cried
cried
cried
like a flood
in dry air.

I feel it all now
for all those times that I caused pain
and I just want my support system to know
the love was never in vain
the storm clouds are gone
but I am here, I remain
and I am more grateful
than a flower is to rain.

– Valerie Parente (5-9-2025)

Warrior Princess

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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

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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)

The False Promise of the Damsel in Distress

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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)

Pull

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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)

They Want Your Heart of Gold

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They Want Your Heart of Gold by Valerie Parente

It is not your fault
that you were manipulated again
you trust so easy
and find it hard to comprehend
that someone might use you
to tie up their own loose ends;
just know your greatest crime
was being a good person.

You have a softness through and through
and this quality attracts manipulators to you
because you have something that they don’t
a heart, and it’s made of pure gold.
Gold is one of the easiest elements to mold
to poke and prod and fold
manipulators see you as a commodity to behold
as if your honesty and loyalty could be sold
but did you also know
that gold does not easily corrode?
They can scratch and stretch and pull
but nothing can chip away at your soul.

Darling, you have a heart of gold
and the ones manipulating have a gaping hole.
Guess who is the valuable one
between the two of those?

– Valerie Parente (3-1-2025)