The Hurt, The Heal, The Hope by Valerie Parente
I felt myself hurt
as I reflected on the feelings that defined my past.
I felt myself heal
as I made sense of the psyche that defined my present.
And I felt myself hope
as I realized what I wanted was not what I need in my future.
This is the trajectory that permeated my inner rhythmic monologue.
This is the process that helped me uncover my faults.
This is my manifesto that I long to share with you all.
– Valerie Parente (3-2-2021)
Polished Mirror by Valerie Parente
Everything is so much clearer
now that I’ve polished my mirror;
reflected on what went wrong
and I’m so beyond moving on.
That’s the thing about retrospect,
you learn from the bitterness,
from what you could not detect,
until it became past tense.
It’s not about what I want, now that I know what I need
and I’m ready to see all that I’m meant to see
with this perspective that’s been reflective
now that I’m finally clean.
– Valerie Parente (3-1-2021)
Moonlight by Valerie Parente
I used to be haunted,
at the mercy of the night,
but now the night lives in me,
so I manipulate the moonlight.
I used to see ghosts,
trapped in space and time,
but now I see this reality,
without the irrational fright.
I know I obsess in phases,
and that gave me the insight,
that fixations are not fixed,
they’re just a state of mind.
Like water that flows,
as the moon controls the tide,
moods always come and go,
that’s just a part of life.
I am more than my mental state,
I am a body with moonlight inside,
call it energy, call it a soul,
call it proof of a spiritual kind.
– Valerie Parente (2-28-2021)
These Laurels Were Not Meant To Rest by Valerie Parente
Imagine, imagine, imagine.
When the world is mundane
I give it my passion
another artistic era
to rise from the ashes.
Create, create, create.
People say I should be satisfied
but I need to formulate
an endless stream of words
from this mental landscape.
Another rhyme, another day,
another opportunity for artistic display.
These laurels were not meant to rest,
in this garden I’ll always progress,
so ever-evolving, so evergreen,
like the creativity that lives within me.
– Valerie Parente (2-26-2021)
Compatible Toxicity by Valerie Parente
There is no bad guy,
it is not you or I,
everyone has a toxic side,
everyone is inherently kind,
those positives can combine,
for compatible good times,
but a problem will arise,
if your toxic traits are compatible with mine.
– Valerie Parente (2-23-2021)
Sentience by Valerie Parente
My favorite kind of poetry
is the meta kind,
like a Russian doll
with another doll inside,
when I’m self-aware
of the mirror outside
and there’s manipulation
to what’s materialized.
No I’m no mother
but I birth what I write,
no I’m no nest
but I am my own shrine.
I am my perception
manifested from eyes.
I am a feedback loop
in the world’s design.
– Valerie Parente (2-23-2021)
The Guardian Angel Complex by Valerie Parente
When you lose a friendship, it creates a hole,
you notice all the places you used to go,
and a crater in the shape of another soul.
But when you lose the life of a friend,
there is a Guardian Angel Complex,
and you still feel their spirit in your chest.
This is precisely why my worst grief is not from death
but from the loss of a relationship.
I know that in death there is peace,
in death, you are still with me.
But when a relationship meets its demise
it fades with all the good times.
Wipe your tears, there is no need to cry,
at the completion of someone’s life.
In the physical world someone can fade away
but in death they materialize into an emotional state.
Do not make grief the enemy,
grief is the universe’s way of hinting at peace.
When there is loss of life and you feel disbelief
that dissonant feeling is all the proof you need
that the souls that leave with love, live on infinitely.
– Valerie Parente (2-9-2021)
Celestial Being by Valerie Parente
I see myself in the moon
because I go through phases too.
I see myself in the stars
because I, too, glow in the dark.
The constellations are my family
they are my home, and all of humanity’s.
Life is incredibly dark, life is incredibly ripe,
life is the way we organize the stellar mind.
Do not give into fear, do not go insane,
this landscape is just a temporary display.
You will be infinite, you will return
when you review all you have learned.
– Valerie Parente (2-5-2021)
Invincible by Valerie Parente
The glory of being open about mental health
is that nobody can weaponize it against you.
Anything you say, I’ve already said myself
and nothing is more invincible than living your truth.
– Valerie Parente (2-3-2021)
There Is A Reason by Valerie Parente
Contrary to popular belief
I did not choose this pain,
it chose me.
I did not choose to fixate,
my mind was already made.
I did not choose to restrict,
it was in my genetics.
I did not throw my life away on that fateful day in ninth grade,
it was meant to happen to teach me about compassion when you rise from the ashes.
I was predisposed to every mental hoax so that my soul could know true spiritual growth.
– Valerie Parente (2-1-2021)
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