Theist by Valerie Parente
People ask, do you believe in God?
I ask, does God believe in us?
Then I remember, He lets us keep going
He lets us keep going even when we mess up
He lets us keep going
He lets us keep going, so he must.
– Valerie Parente (3-27-2026)
Savor / Savior by Valerie Parente
I asked God “how can I make the most of a moment?”
and he told me to savor
but taste has always made me feel guilty
like a sick girl who chews and spits it out for the flavor.
Now in my recovery and adulthood
I don’t condone that behavior
but I’d be lying if I withheld the facts of my past
bound to come out sooner or later
how I wasted away like I wasted time
and made my own breathing labored.
The truth is I’m still scared of consumption
without a cavern or a crater
but I no longer leave room intentionally
I’ve started to do myself that favor,
realizing gut feelings are there for a reason
and to mute them is to mute my maker.
So I saved myself from within by enjoying food again
to the memories the guardian angels catered.
Now I feel a presence in every present tense
with a belly that belongs to a savior.
– Valerie Parente (3-8-2026)
Valkyrie by Valerie Parente
They told me to find a knight in shining armor
if I wanted someone to save me
so I polished my nails
and became my own source of bravery.
They told me to dull my shine
so that I wouldn’t distract
then pretended I never had
any power to take back.
They wanted me to yield my worth
and rely on the opposite sex
so I decided to wield my sword
and damn my own distress.
They tried to make me feel small
so I wouldn’t notice
that I am a force
to be reckoned with.
– Valerie Parente (2-20-2026)
The Creator’s Paradox by Valerie Parente
What am I
if not God’s art?
God creates perfection
but you say that I’m wrong
and in the same virtuous breath
that I was made in His image all along.
How can the thing that created everything
be a pillar of perfection but create a world of flaws?
Every abomination
was someone’s creation
can we say the creator is sick
but not their rules and their laws
either I am a masterpiece, so idealistic
or I was a mistake never meant to spawn
but the one thing I know for sure is that I exist
so it would be insanity to say that there is no God.
The creator must be an artist
because our existence is a paradox
the goal of art is not to appear perfect
the goal is to express a breath and a thought.
– Valerie Parente (11-11-2025)
Starving Artist by Valerie Parente
Eat your words and be compelled
to doubt the passion within myself
when you say I’m not a successful artist
because I haven’t made a profit
that I’m supposed to make money from my art
but I only spend money making art so far
struggling to make it accessible
striving to make it impressionable
but I guess I’m just a “starving artist”
scrambling for coins in empty pockets
how am I supposed to hide from depression and inaction
when I’m standing in the open begging for traction
and the “starving artist” in me starved before
the teenager with anorexia as her mentor
my talent used to be limiting my intake
now my talent is having something of value to say
so don’t you dare preach to me about starvation
when I already mastered the art of deliberate deprivation
if the world really insists on giving me this title
I’m going to be hellbent and entitled
when you use the label “starving artist” again
I’ll eat your words while rhyming them.
– Valerie Parente (9-28-2025)
The Damsel & The Demon
by Valerie Parente
There once was a Damsel named Daphne
and when she was just a girl
she started having intrusive thoughts
that drew her to the underworld.
There stood the kingdom of Nefaria
ruled by a soul sucking Demon
he preyed on the vulnerable
by giving them something to believe in.
With the incessant rhymes in her head
the Damsel turned to the Demon for relief
tolerating and even aiding
the damned souls he heartlessly reaped.
But in a moment of profound strength
Daphne had a change of heart
she felt the fire in her own soul,
all it took was one spark.
From that day began a journey
where her codependence would be unlearned
finding a power within herself
Daphne would be the Damsel no more.
The Damsel & The Demon is a poetry/fantasy story hybrid (verse novel) meant to be an allegory for the healing process, whether that be healing from addiction, a toxic relationship, a traumatic event, or anything in between. Valerie drew inspiration from her personal struggle with obsessive compulsive disorder and anorexia to create this Allegory for Healing through the lens of the main character, Daphne. For both Daphne and Valerie, fleeting feelings can only exist as fixations, and the rhythmic stanzas of an internal dialogue, playing like poetry, is the conduit between the mentally disordered author and the hexed protagonist of this story. There is so much beauty in healing, but healing is still ever so messy, uncovering darkness where we expected light and vice versa. Determined to create this massive poem with no help from search engines or AI, Valerie made it her mission to come up with every rhyme on her own; turning to the internet for help was forbidden. As a result, The Damsel & The Demon is an authentic fantastical dark fairytale scripture rich with revelations and an aim to help readers everywhere see themselves in the damsel archetype as well as the ailment they struggle to separate from in the demon.
Valerie Parente is a writer and artist from Massachusetts whose bodies of work often explore the theme, “Finding beauty in darkness” and general mental health awareness.
Blue Lips by Valerie Parente
You say, something about the cold
and how it makes you depressed
like the whole world goes dark
and you lose all interest.
You say, the cold is like death
but for me I feel alive
because we can only see breath
when it’s cold outside.
I say, something about the cold
and how it makes my lips blue.
Well at least when I’m cold
I’m the color of you.
– Valerie Parente (8-24-2025)
Meraki by Valerie Parente
I’m okay
spilling my guts
into everything
that I touch.
I don’t mind
crying blood
because it shows me
what I’m made of.
I’m content
throwing up
all the words
that I love.
I’m at peace
putting a piece of me
into everything that I do
so that when this body decays
a little piece of me lives on with you.
One Woman
by Valerie Parente
One woman’s empowerment
is another woman’s degradation
and if you’re wondering who gets to decide
the answer is one woman,
one woman at a time.
– Valerie Parente (6-23-2025)
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