In Love with a Nihilist by Valerie Parente
It says less about you
and more about me
that when you say you’re a nihilist
I start to think in poetry
using rhyme and reason
to find reasons in the grand scheme
and you might not see your meaning
but how could that be?
Because when I conceptualize it all
there’s one concept I believe
that you’re in this world on purpose
and you mean the world to me.
– Valerie Parente (9-1-2021)
That’s The Moon by Valerie Parente
Look up high
at the night sky.
See that? That’s the moon
it’s not an excuse
it’s an explanation
to something complicated
something I don’t think I’ll ever fully understand
but when I break it down as a symbol I stand a chance
to make sense of the voice inside
this methodically mad mind.
Do you see that? That’s the moon
and it belongs to you too.
– Valerie Parente (6-16-2021)
I think God is an artist… by Valerie Parente
More and more each day
I realize that mental illness is poetic.
So many ironies,
so many metaphors,
I think God is an artist…
I’m afraid of what I already am
and that brought me to my knees,
how the mind is like a nesting doll
mirroring the larger reality.
The more lessons I learn
the more I’m able to recognize
the sense of humor
in God’s artistic mind…
it’s kind of sick,
it’s kind of beautiful,
it’s so poetic,
like my own soul…
and maybe that’s the truth
that your maker is no more than you
that your very identity
is one with the God that sees it through.
– Valerie Parente (5-29-2021)
You’re Just Hunger with Sentience by Valerie Parente
You’re just hunger
with sentience
and I’ll forever
be hellbent
on empathizing
with the energy
that’s sacrificed
so I can breathe.
– Valerie Parente (5-17-2021)
Incense by Valerie Parente
These incense
in a scent
bid my innocence
in a sense
’cause I am aware
of the consciousness we share
like smoke everywhere
as it fills the sweet air.
– Valerie Parente (4-23-2021)
Black and White by Valerie Parente
They say the higher you climb,
the harder the fall,
but if you ask me,
that doesn’t make sense at all.
When I’m sky high,
the clouds are my cushion,
the sun is my eyes,
and the moon is my vision.
I see a gradient in everything,
life is not black and white,
“all is good, all is evil,”
is a fallacy old as time.
I see it from the cliff,
the gifted and the damned,
and there’s really no difference,
between those two hands.
Every blessing has its dark hours,
every curse can shed a light,
it’s about finding the gray area,
between the black and white.
The hurt feels so dark,
the hope, a bright light,
the heal, a full moon,
connecting day to night.
– Valerie Parente (4-14-2021)
Seascape by Valerie Parente
You think the answer is out there,
so it’s time to set sail,
engulfed in the seascape,
and its nautical tales,
hoping for mermaids,
creatures we’ve never seen,
set sail, this sweet ship,
a metaphysical discovery.
You think you’re just a ship,
lost in the ocean,
the truth is you’re the tide,
implicitly in motion,
waves of the mind,
here before your birth,
man did not make you,
nature spawned you first.
You think when you’re shipwrecked,
that it is the very end,
the truth is, you’re set free,
no more need to pretend,
part of the blue mystery,
so much bigger than you,
connected with everything,
the current becomes your truth.
– Valerie Parente (4-7-2021)
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 Utmost Importance by Valerie Parente
All I want
in the big scheme
is for you and me
to be able to speak
about how we feel
freely.
Where ideas are allowed
to differ in a crowd
without shutting each other down
with a buzzword to block the profound
just because one person has self doubt.
Because I might be bitter inside
from personal bad times
but that doesn’t give me the right
to say you cannot vocalize
all of your good times.
The right to speak
is the right to feel
and the right to feel
is the right to be
and if we can’t just be
then there is no point to humanity.
– Valerie Parente (11-4-2020)
The Universe Inside of You by Valerie Parente
Do not get freaked out
that everything you do
seems to have a common theme.
Be amazed that your subconscious
understands the grand scheme.
Because your mind is the universe’s method
of making itself seen.
– Valerie Parente (9-27-2020)
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