Light Pollution

Light Pollution by Valerie Parente

It’s not normal to be so bright
all of the time
and the more you force it
the less meaning you’ll find.
If you’re plagued by the artificial
you might as well be blind
because the light pollution
blocks out the natural skies
and there’s a reason we live
in a world that turns to night;
it is not to make you sad
it is meant to highlight
that you’re entitled to be somber
it is your natural right
but the stars can take it from here
so turn off the lights.
We don’t need all this pollution
and the push to be contrived
you don’t need to fake a smile
you are allowed to cry
that duality is night and day
and what it means to be alive.

– Valerie Parente (8-3-2025)


Night Terrors

Night Terrors by Valerie Parente

You only feel afraid
in the nighttime
when the darkness spreads
across your eyes
but you may be mistaken
in your nightly fright
because without this contrast
you would not recognize the light.

The stars
the moon
the planets
the sky.
Rest assured
that you can rest tonight.
You should be anything
but terrified.

– Valerie Parente (6-26-2025)

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)

Immaculate

Immaculate by Valerie Parente

At the beginning God said,
“Let there be light”
but Luna was born
on a pitch black midnight.

So she grew up and lectured God,
“I don’t know who you think you are,
but I see so much cruelty around me;
the world is nothing but dark.”

And God looked at her and laughed,
“Sweet girl, you’ve got it all wrong,
you can see these things around you
because you are that light amongst it all.”

So she made it her mission in life
to spread light into the atmosphere,
and nobody knew where she came from
but they knew she was meant to be here.

– Valerie Parente (6-16-2024)

Sol Purpose

Sol Purpose by Valerie Parente

What I am
and what I could have been
is what the moon is to the sun
when you compare them.

A fireball of brilliant light
so much potential in action
and I am no more than a rock
whose light is but a fraction.

Though I’ll tell you something about the sun
it hovers alone above the horizon
but when the moon is out
billions of stars join the environment.

To be bright and sole
or to be dim but glistening
one leaves all blind
one reveals purpose in the end.

Valerie Parente (5-28-2024)


The Timing of The Stars

The Timing of The Stars by Valerie Parente

The light from a star has been conspiring
to make its way to you in due time;
traveling through the cosmos
to reach your eyes.

The constellations give you exactly what you need
at the perfectly right time;
whether you are ready or not
is just a state of mind.

Looking back on the past
everything always makes sense
so why not put your faith
in the future past, called present?

– Valerie Parente (3-8-2024)

Shadow Sign

Shadow Sign by Valerie Parente

Shadow Sign
you weren’t the light of my life
you were just the shape in which I had been traumatized
I thought you were what I wanted
after all these years of being haunted
because the truth of the matter is
I was never really his
and that unofficial kind of bliss
had me tracing my steps with darkness.

Because Shadow Sign
you were never mine
and with your outline I realize
you weren’t the problem, you were its signal
not something that I was ever meant to rekindle
a simplification of the self
implied light from somewhere else
and that’s the truth to mental health
I looked for love when what I needed was help.

– Valerie Parente (7-21-2021)

The Witching Hour and the Day She Witnessed

The Witching Hour and the Day She Witnessed by Valerie Parente

I love the brightness of the day,
but when the moon comes to play,
I like hearing the owls speak,
whistling wisdom from their beaks.

I must tell you, I respect the evening,
and the very moon that I believe in,
the dark sky brings retrospect,
to the daylight earlier witnessed.

She who is nocturnal,
owns a world that is eternal,
because there’s never an end,
to what the soul can comprehend.

Well I guess that’s how it goes,
we have experience and then we grow,
encoding it all in the witching hour,
where the spirits accompany what’s ours.

– Valerie Parente (6-5-2021)

The Seven Swords

The Seven Swords (A Fantasy Chronicle) by Valerie Parente

He was an elven warrior,
wielding a mighty sword,
an Excalibur that glowed,
in dire times of war.

There were six other swords,
each emanating a vibrant hue,
violet, indigo, green, yellow,
orange, scarlet, and his was blue.

This elf belonged to the clouds,
his people charged the stars,
on a stratosphere of temples,
each lighting up the dark.

Sky-born elves were peaceful,
up until a decade ago,
when archangels from underground,
took the stars as their own.

Ever since that catastrophic heist,
the world was never the same,
all creatures lived in the dark,
using torches to illuminate.

That’s when the seven swords
broke their hibernation,
their glow was the key,
to defeating hell’s nation.

The blue sword resided in a raincloud,
violet was stored on the lilac beach,
indigo hid away in the catacombs,
green perched in the forts of trees,
yellow in the sunlight chapel,
orange in the nymph observatory,
and scarlet in the wicked forest,
that guarded hell from enemies.

All seven swords were retrieved,
by different breeds of man,
elves, witches, trolls, and more,
each ready to take a stand.

Every retrieval was its own tale,
but that is for another day,
today we discuss the battle,
that took place at hell’s gates.

The archangels fought hard,
to keep the world in the dark,
but the seven swords fought harder,
to find the light that was lost.

For seven days and seven nights,
the battleground was on fire,
and sword after sword,
illuminated like a lighter.

The archangels were defeated,
by the myriad of colors,
and every time one deceased,
they exploded like no other.

A rainbow of brilliant rays,
shot up like a beam to the sky,
and each archangel carcass,
became a new kind of starlight.

Ever since that fateful day,
the blue sword became a symbol,
absorbing the light in the sky,
that once belonged to the dismal.

We learn from the seven swords,
that sometimes the darkest minds,
just need a little spark,
to surrender to the bright side.

– Valerie Parente (4-16-2021)