The Vulnerability of Hope by Valerie Parente
To have hope is to be vulnerable
and open to disappointment.
When you are hopeless nothing can hurt you,
you’ve given up and everything is pointless.
It is better to be hopeful
despite the pain that will transpire
because the universe chose us for the human experience
and that is this life’s greatest honor.
– Valerie Parente (8-28-2020)
Humbling Truth by Valerie Parente
To speak your mind is your God given right
but to be heard is a gift.
Be humbled when the world listens.
– Valerie Parente (8-1-2020)
Special by Valerie Parente
You think there’s nothing special about your life
but every day that you’re alive
is a day that has never happened before
so quit being so insecure
because you’re very existence is spectacular.
– Valerie Parente (7-15-2020)
Theme of Rather Be Haunted & Explanation behind Title
– Valerie Parente (7-13-2020)
Public Display of Creation
by Valerie Parente
She is afraid
of what it means to be admired
in the physical way.
And what does it mean
to be a public display?
The glitter and glamour
of all of the fame
or will she succumb
to the pressure to hide away?
What does it mean to be successful
in this day and age
when all your words are picked apart
and everyone has a say?
Because her words are her art
but the public could always manipulate
the words from her heart.
Oh but how dare they?
How dare you have an agenda,
to destroy what others make?
How dare you burn the books
when you don’t like a phrase?
How dare you take this world
and demand it revolve around your name?
Because we are all artists
with a freedom to create
and to censor what becomes popular
will only lead to a world of heartache.
Yes she’s afraid
of making it to the mainstream
but that’s a risk she’ll take
because every story needs to be seen.
– Valerie Parente (7-8-2020)
Love. Heartache. Death.
Rather Be Haunted documents a dark period for the poet. Emotions linger like ghosts. Interpersonal relations cause palpable frustration. Death breaks the heart but in the most beautiful way.
Through chronological poetry and prose you can feel all that haunts the obsessive compulsive writer’s psyche as she tries to understand her hyper-sensitivities through rhymes and clever lines. As frustration builds, so does resilience, making the struggles that define our humanity all the more remarkable. After all, isn’t the struggle to make sense of emotions the grandest mark of being alive? What makes us human hurts; that is the gift of the universe.
Rather Be Haunted is the second volume of poetry & prose by Valerie Parente, featuring Mannequin Art alongside writing pieces. You can now own the collection in Paperback or Kindle!
For anyone interested in supporting my mission to find beauty in darknes, I just made a Patreon account. No pressure to join, I just figured I should make the option available as an artist in this day and age. http://www.patreon.com/valerieparente
The overarching theme to all my artwork- whether it is poetry, prose, stories, drawings, paintings, or photography- is finding beautiful darkness. I love finding the positive in dark moods, situations, and imagery. This is evident in my written work on my website, valerieparente.wordpress.com, and in my novels available on Amazon (“The Artist, The Muse”, “In Touch”, and “Rather Be Haunted”. I draw inspiration from a lifelong and personal struggle with very severe Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and anorexia. Each body of work I create centers around mental illness.
The Artist, The Muse : a poetry and prose collection about what it is like to have a mental disorder that influences your art.
In Touch : a fiction novel about a female with OCD, based on my real-life struggle with OCD, through the eyes of a male without the disorder.
Rather Be Haunted : a poetry and prose collection that explores love, heartache, and death from the perspective of a girl with OCD that feels “haunted” by the motifs in life that define her humanity, including my signature Mannequin Art (used as a commentary on what it means to learn how to be a “normal” human).
Thank you from the bottom of my heart if you are interested in my journey to discover beauty in darkness.
Burn by Valerie Parente
I don’t even miss you any more,
I only ever think of you when I’m bored,
because you weren’t the person I deserved,
just a lesson I needed to learn
in this incredibly fucked up world.
– Valerie Parente (6-27-2020)
Let Go by Valerie Parente
Do not give energy to your worries
because the universe will try to warrant those worries
because the law of attraction
is judged by your interaction
with the thoughts that make it all happen.
– Valerie Parente (6-23-2020)
Red Flags by Valerie Parente
Next time I see warning signs I need to realize
that this frustration makes me see red;
that’s why the red flags were easier to protect
because the color wasn’t something I noticed.
– Valerie Parente (6-22-2020)
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