I think God is an artist…

May 29, 2021June 25, 2021Leave a comment

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

May 17, 2021May 17, 2021Leave a comment

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

April 23, 2021April 23, 2021Leave a comment

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

April 14, 2021Leave a comment

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

April 7, 2021August 8, 2021Leave a comment

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

March 20, 2021June 24, 2021Leave a comment

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

November 4, 2020June 24, 20211 Comment

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

September 27, 2020September 27, 2020Leave a comment

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)

Valerie’s Thesis

April 16, 2020April 16, 2020Leave a comment

Valerie’s Thesis by Valerie Parente

If there’s one goal in my social life it’s to enchant another person’s mind
The perfect interaction is a transaction where I teach you and you teach me
Just promise you’ll teach me without being preachy
because I thrive on being enlightened and I die when you condescend
so help me understand the world outside and I’ll translate the art sitting in your psyche.

Nothing bothers me more than when someone thinks I’m just a dumb girl
because inside my mind is a large web of things that make me obsessed
and I know that comes across like I can’t find my thoughts.
The truth is I just struggle with my words when I have to speak them into the world
but give me paper and a pen to write and I promise I’ll blow your mind.

I know it sounds pretentious but if I’m being perfectly honest
I’d rather you read what I write than see my picture and click “like”
Yes I still have an aesthetic but that’s just the visual poetry of my intellect
If I have to post my face to get your attention and enter the conversation
then I’ll gladly pose in place only to switch your direction to mental reflection.

I believe our minds are a never-ending storm given a body in this crazy world
that God gave us physical anatomy as our way of making sense of mentality
The pain that comes with having an ego serves to recognize the other in a collective soul
So you better be damn sure that if I find another mind that can discuss this even one time
then I’m going to hold onto that conversation like it’s my most valuable human connection.

– Valerie Parente (4-16-2020)