Tag: mental health

Grab Your Crystals

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Grab Your Crystals by Valerie Parente

She cracked open her chest
and pulled a cluster of crystals out
ready to thrive again
like rain after the longest drought.

The world was shut down
and she was shut off
locked away in a cave
growing rocks in the dark.

Some rocks were iridescent,
picking up hues from her moods,
some rocks were rose colored wands,
sharing a beautiful body of truth,
some rocks were translucent towers,
pointing to her next move,
some rocks were marble orbs,
reminding her what she had to lose.

So grab the crystals you’ve been saving
in the shape of a heart
hold them up to the sunlight
and watch your dark side depart.

– Valerie Parente (4-13-2021)

The Owl Mind

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The Owl Mind by Valerie Parente

Nocturnal under the moonlight,
with visions of horror,
so many fears when it becomes night,
like a bad dream in color.

Intrusive images play in rotations,
amplified by the dark,
wide-eyed in your fixations,
as you perform your thoughts.

Something about the evening,
the howls elongate and stretch,
so foreboding like a demon,
so much worse when the sun sets.

Vigilant on treetops like a tower,
is it paranoia or being wise?
Everything is scarier after hours,
and yes, that includes my mind.

The owl mind is exhausting,
the owl mind you can’t trust,
but there is no other option,
dark will always follow dusk.

– Valerie Parente (3-31-2021)

Horns

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Horns by Valerie Parente

I used to wear a halo,
now I wear horns,
it wasn’t my intention,
until I was scorned,
leaving the garden,
where roses have thorns,
and I didn’t come out,
unscathed from the storm,
when the sky cleared,
I was weathered and worn,
and the horns began to sprout,
from the temples I adorned.

It wasn’t immediate,
it came from hindsight,
for ten months I went,
trying to rationalize,
dissecting where and how,
I could be the bad guy,
then the news broke,
that I was in the right,
but I still wear these horns,
they comfort me at night,
’cause I can be the demon,
instead of a damsel in demise.

The townsfolk are skeptical,
for whom I vouch for,
I understand the fright,
but I’m better than before,
the uncertainty is gone,
I am no longer unsure,
there is no insecurity,
I am no longer unmoored,
if he hurts me again,
it will hurt him a hell of a lot more,
the worst already came for me,
but then I grew these horns.

– Valerie Parente (3-29-2021)

Mental Growth

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Mental Growth by Valerie Parente

How many times
have we heard that saying
“you need to go through pain to grow”?
How many times
did we try to cheat the system
when all we really did was postpone?
Well I always knew I would break
I just kept putting off the date
now I’ve had a year to mature
and the growth is ten times more
but the one thing I need to try
is never to celebrate being right
because the moment I place value on being correct
I’d undermine my newfound self-respect.

I didn’t heal thinking I was right about everything
I healed when I accepted being right didn’t mean a thing.

– Valerie Parente (3-19-2021)

The Key To Empathy

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The Key To Empathy by Valerie Parente

It’s not narcissism
it’s recognizing your pain
as it is a mirror
of my mental state.

It’s empathy
individualized
when I look
into your eyes.

I don’t reach this understanding
by thinking about my soul
I reach it
when I see you have your own.

– Valerie Parente (3-18-2021)

Strength Today

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Strength Today by Valerie Parente

It killed me back then
but I’m so alive now
I didn’t carry myself up
to burrow back in the ground.

You say I’m going easy
but I think I’m going strong
because I’ve taken what I’ve learned
and moved myself along.

I didn’t know I’d be validated
back when I found my strength
and that’s why I can handle
whatever comes today.

I don’t see the point
in making someone sad about the past
when they express an understanding
of the things that have passed.
Why would I want
to ignore the happiness I feel today
and spoil the present
in the name of former heartache?
My heartache doesn’t own me,
I am owned by my strength,
and my strength is telling me
it’s okay to celebrate.
That’s the thing about happiness,
it’s kind of like pain,
you have to choose to let it in,
and that’s a choice I’m willing to make.

– Valerie Parente (3-16-2021)

Graffiti

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Graffiti by Valerie Parente

Like a graffiti artist
envisioning a new canvas
I saw the writing on the wall
and I was terrified me from the start.
Even though I love to paint my pain
I had never been more afraid
because I knew that space will never be pure again
I got something beautiful at a monumental expense.

– Valerie Parente (3-10-2021)

Through Hell (Is The Way Out)

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Through Hell (Is The Way Out) by Valerie Parente

The longer you feed that unhealthy mental state,
trying and trying to avoid the tallest flames,
that fire is only going to expand its space,
and engulf you into a larger blaze.

I had to go through a brutal kind of hell,
to address a prolonged flaw with my mental health,
a problem that put too much pressure on someone else,
and now I finally feel like the best version of myself.

– Valerie Parente (3-10-2021)

Please Keep Your Cynicism To Yourself

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Please Keep Your Cynicism To Yourself by Valerie Parente

Cynicism is a choice.
It is a choice to be void.
You are welcome to not believe in a higher being,
but don’t you dare shut down those who found it and its meaning;
people who have crawled out of the darkness of addiction and grief,
people who survived because they had something outside themself to believe.
If you look at these miracles and roll your eyes at the world,
and think “I’m way too smart to believe in something more”,
then your problem isn’t intelligence,
your problem is stone cold arrogance.
Just because you do not see the benefit of it,
does not mean the benefit does not exist.

Please, do the world a favor next time,
when you want to shame the people who survived,
treat the world like you treat the herbs you smoke,
take a deep breathe, then let it go.

– Valerie Parente (3-10-2021)

Awareness Vs. Exploitation

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I think there’s a very important difference between writing from a point of mental health awareness and mental health exploitation. Mental health awareness is about going to a dark space and shining a light on it, exploitation just drags you into the dark abyss, offering no solace. I’ve made a vow since my diagnosis to make sure my art does the former.

– Valerie Parente (3-9-2021)