Humanity by Valerie Parente
To live is to feel
To feel is to emote
To emote is to communicate
To communicate is to connect
To connect is to love
And to love is to live.
Don’t waste your life
fighting your feelings.
– Valerie Parente (7-6-2019)
now I’m getting pissed by Valerie Parente
I don’t know how many times I can be messed with
before I draw a line, but now I’m getting pissed
if you think this is about you then it probably is
and if you really think it through like I already did
then you’d realize I could prove in a poetic list
that I’ve overcome too much in life to be treated like shit.
– Valerie Parente (7-4-2019)
Stand My Ground by Valerie Parente
I know my place
upon this Earth
I cannot be
provoked or disturbed.
What’s meant to be
has always been.
Do not worry
about the time you’ve spent.
– Valerie Parente (6-26-2019)
Full Moon Baby by Valerie Parente
The gravity of her decisions is a balancing act
On a full moon she learned how to manipulate the mad
and when she sees her mistakes she thinks “oh that’s a shame”
but the weight of her fate is never in vain.
– Valerie Parente (6-24-2019)
Internal Monologue by Valerie Parente
I am made of stardust and everything I believe in is written in constellations.
My entire world is comprised of traveling light that glows up the night.
And I am in awe of how the cosmos mirror my make-up.
I can hear the stars as voices in my head, an internal monologue that never ends.
Feel me breathe
and see me think
I am the language
the starlight speaks.
“Star Whisperer” by Valerie Parente
– Valerie Parente (6-16-2019)
Empathy by Valerie Parente
The most alive
I’ve ever felt
was when I empathized
with someone else.
– Valerie Parente (6-11-2019)
Confrontation by Valerie Parente
I was hoping for a confrontation
because confrontation is better than the static of listening to you lie to yourself again and again
and if you’re willing to sacrifice your emotional growth to be “right” then I have no problem spending time with people farther along in life.
– Valerie Parente (6-10-2019)
A Writer’s Threat by Valerie Parente
For years I have been my own muse.
If I make you my muse then you have done the near-impossible… you have overthrown my ego. Congratulations, you are divine in my eyes.
Just hope to God that you’ve become my muse for enchanting my life, not for inflicting senseless pain. Because if you try to write me off then I’m going to turn the writer on. If you ask me to stop then guess what? You just gave me a new prompt. I can orchestrate a symphony of sentences that will touch you to tears or I can arrange a thousand words into your personal hell. Both will pierce your heart ten times stronger than you pierced mine. And when you read what’s on my mind you better actually listen to the message and cherish the emotional chords it strikes, good or bad, because a storm of more rhymes and literary devices are about to head your way and tear apart every piece and particle that once constructed your comfort zone… and that’s going to continue happening with more and more force until I become your muse.
felt cute, might stab someone with my words later
– Valerie Parente (6-4-2019)
“String Me Along”
Tangled by Valerie Parente
All these tangled thoughts
have one common thread
twisted in a pattern
I’ve memorized in my head.
Stringing me along
with so much time spent
leaving me weak and worn
frayed and torn to shreds.
So much pretty yarn
it tells me where I’ve been
but it’s nobody’s concern
when I tie up the loose ends.
I wonder how long
until someone notices
I’ve been weaving my words
hoping that they’ll be read.
– Valerie Parente (5-31-2019)
A Poetic Manifesto by Valerie Parente
What it means to be an artist is that I take my life experiences and process them through a creative filter. My internal world manifests best through the art of written word. As a result, when I’m in pain I might write a “dark” piece. To those who find this work disturbing, this is my rebuttal.
I have every right to say anything I want to say
because this page is my stage and this is my brain
and the reason you felt uncomfortable when you read it
was because you have resonated with it.
If you become upset knowing that I am broken
then please understand that writing about my mental health
is how I begin to heal myself.
I will never stop emoting and hurting and healing and if any of this is problematic for someone then I pray you find the strength to learn how to be human one day.
– Valerie Parente (5-30-2019)
