Tag: spirituality

Incantations

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Incantations by Valerie Parente

Where there is language, there is a pulse
and my pain is copyrighted on my tongue
maybe that’s why I’ve learned to love
the distinct taste of my own blood.

We made symbols for what we were hearing
we strung those symbols together to create meaning
we morphed meanings with rhyme and reason
until we made something to believe in.

They’re called spells for witches
they’re religion for linguistics
for poets, something mystic
God only knows the difference.

We speak these conditions
carefully into existence
the universe’s heuristics
have no concept of distance.

The rhymes and their placement
passed down generations
the craft of narration
in all its incantations.

Weak men call it a dark art
when women have wisdom to impart
from the larynx it departs
to the rhythm of their heart.

It’s a craft, nonetheless
but there’s nothing nefarious
it’s when we use our dialect
that it’s the ultimate catharsis.

– Valerie Parente (10-14-2026)

Survivor

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Survivor
by Valerie Parente

I am not a victim
I am a survivor.

I am not that broken little girl
I am the one who revived her.

I am not my circumstance
I am the good it inspired.

I am not worse for it all
I am the wiser.

I don’t remember the pain you gave me
I remember the power I acquired
because when the darkness came for me
I lit up like a fire.

– Valerie Parente (8-9-2026)

Transcendent Beings

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Transcendent Beings by Valerie Parente

When I dream
my body doesn’t come with me.
I don’t worry about the where when and why
I simply believe
and it’s already mine.

When I hope
I just need to feel it to know.
Nature doesn’t need to run it by me
like a river that flows
along my conscious stream.

There are hints all around
embedded in the sensory
that when it’s all said and done
we are transcendent beings.

I am not the life I live
through my thoughts
I am the dream that goes on
when they shut off.

– Valerie Parente (7-23-2026)

The Fine Line of Yearning

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The Fine Line of Yearning by Valerie Parente

Yearning is a fine line
between surviving and thriving
and somewhere along the line
I fell in love with the surviving
the journey to preserve myself
while trusting the timing
that the goal of something else
would be gratifying.

But I didn’t prepare for
the comfort of discomfort
finding home in the journey
finding peace in the yearning.
Waiting
preparing
learning
becoming the best me
and when I finally had my hands on all I dreamed
I couldn’t shake the feeling
that I wanted to go back to sleep.

But now I know who I am
and I know what I will carry with me
and I know closing that circle
is where that fine line completes.

– Valerie Parente (6-28-2026)

Savor / Savior

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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)

Seed

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Seed by Valerie Parente

I had a dream
that somebody asked me
how they can manifest their dreams
and I told them with unwavering certainty,
“First, plant a seed
water it
tend to it
watch it sprout
do it all attentively
then you will see
you are capable of growing something complete
out of something that was once just a belief
then you will understand
how to use your energy.”

– Valerie Parente (2-7-2026)

Meeting You Was A Lot Like Remembering

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Meeting You Was A Lot Like Remembering by Valerie Parente

Meeting you
was a lot like remembering
what I wanted
when I thought I’d forgotten.

Being with you
was a lot like recognizing
an answer to a prayer
when it was in the palm of my hands.

Nothing with you ever felt new to me
it felt like waking up and remembering a dream
like you’re just another quality of reality
like space and time and the air we breathe
like rhyme and reason and poetry
like you and me are meant to be.

– Valerie Parente (1-25-2026)

Raven Reverie

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Raven Reverie by Valerie Parente

I had a vision
of a lady in a gown
but it was a bird cage
where a raven could be found.

I saw it all in a dream
a future I could articulate and pronounce
so I plucked a feather from the raven
and I wrote the whole thing down.

I believe in manifestation
and there were hints all around
like that feeling of remembering
when something new played out.

There were moments in my life
where a clue was said out loud
and I knew it was speaking to my soul
because there was no hesitation or doubt.

Every reverie
once suspended in the clouds
like a bird flying in the sky
that always ends up in the ground.

We bring to the earth
ideas from a place so profound
that the very act of thought
transcends all logic and sound.

– Valerie Parente (1-11-2026)



Taproot

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Taproot by Valerie Parente

Praying
and daydreaming
are one and the same
wanting
and envisioning
share the same face
it starts in the body
then goes out in space
it starts in the soil
then branches away.

I used to think falling to my knees was only for begging
but it’s really for manifesting
because when you’re down on your knees
you’re closer to the ground
closer to the seeds
where it all sprouts out.

– Valerie Parente (12-25-2025)