Tag: Poetry

Dress Up

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Dress Up by Valerie Parente

Kinda funny, when you dress up
that they get all hung up
because a woman can look like a woman
unless there are sums of men looking,
and if you dress like a doll
they’ll think it’s playtime when it’s not.
But last time I checked
I expect so much less
when a man looks like a man
I don’t assume he’ll hold my hand.
It’s condescending to the men
that we think less of them
like they can’t control their fantasies
when they see a woman so free
as if they don’t have the control
not to touch what’s not their own.
You can dress up, you can dress down
you can convey whatever you dream about
because it empowers every party
when you feel free with who you want to be.

– Valerie Parente (3-6-2021)

Not Bionic

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Not Bionic by Valerie Parente

You can be recovered
and still not feel okay
maybe for minutes
maybe for days
the key is accepting
that you operate
on the very mechanisms
that make you brave.
You are not bionic
you are not unfazed.
You are a child
of the moon’s display
and that will always mean
that sadness comes in waves
but so does happiness
it arrives all the same.
It is this temperament
that helps you create
it is your reactions
that leave room for grace.
When you have a memory
and it’s by mistake
you are allowed to feel
any type of way
because you are not bionic
you are not man-made
you are something natural
deep in outer space
you are endless and real
in mankind’s masquerade.

– Valerie Parente (3-4-2021)

The Hurt, The Heal, The Hope

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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)

Sage for Sage

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Sage for Sage by Valerie Parente

Cleanse the room
like I’ve cleansed myself.
Heal the collective conscience
and its mental health.
The air and its smoke
is so much bigger than you
but we are all connected
to the wisdom’s roots.
Sage for sage,
please accompany me.
Sage for sage,
I will learn as I breathe.

– Valerie Parente (2-16-2021)

The Guardian Angel Complex

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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)