The Default

April 19, 2025April 19, 2025Leave a comment

The Default by Valerie Parente

The default is compassion
but when it comes to yourself, it’s dissatisfaction.
So why can’t you grant yourself the grace
you so easily give others in the same headspace?

Why when perspective is first person
is the expectation to be perfect?
You are someone else’s someone else,
and if you can identify their cry for help
why can’t you do the same
when it comes to your own brain?

You have so much empathy for the human condition,
step outside yourself and listen,
everything you go through, someone else can relate to,
it’s time to change the default settings and reboot.

– Valerie Parente (4-19-2025)

Incarnate

April 6, 2025April 6, 2025Leave a comment

Incarnate by Valerie Parente

If the soul is something invisible
then why do certain songs make my soul feel seen?
And if my consciousness is divisible
then why do centuries of stories have the same theme?
If I didn’t choose this body
then why do I pick my own brain?
If I didn’t choose this journey
then why did I incarnate?
If true essence is impossible to capture
then why can art mirror my mind?
If there is no such thing as life after
then why does lost love linger behind?

I don’t think anyone really knows
what we’re doing here
but if there was ever a clue
it wouldn’t be in what makes sense, but how we feel.

– Valerie Parente (4-6-2025)

Pull

March 22, 2025March 22, 2025Leave a comment

Pull by Valerie Parente

She feels the pull
of light in equal amounts
the full fledged growth
from a garden she’s planting now.

They say it’s a green thumb
but it’s more like a claw on her hand
the one she used to scrape the dirt
then watch the seeds turn to plants.

This is no burial
it’s a call to rise
for a girl to become the woman
like a flower growing towards the light.

That light is her future self
smiling from above
a perfect reflection
of the frown she came from.

This pull she felt since she was young,
it was always in her view
and the only thing that is with you 100% of the time…
make no mistake, it is future you.

– Valerie Parente (3-22-2025)

Irrevocable

March 15, 2025March 21, 2025Leave a comment

Irrevocable by Valerie Parente

In my anxiety
I imagine
if I lost it all
and in my anxiety
I imagine
my reaction
to if I lost it all
and the first thought that comes to mind
is “I’ve had such a great life”
because something about being without
makes me realize how unfathomably blessed I’ve been
and in what I lack in the present tense
I’ve gained the ability to see how the universe once filled that space
and to be able to recognize a miracle
is an irrevocable miracle in itself.
The world can decay and the universe can evaporate
but to no longer be blind to how life was great
is not a loss, it’s a gain.

– Valerie Parente (3-15-2025)

Winter Trees

February 23, 2025February 23, 2025Leave a comment

Winter Trees by Valerie Parente

Winter trees look quite distressed,
naked before the rest
but did you ever notice
that winter trees perfectly reflect
the roots that grow in the depths
of the grime, the grit, the stress,
in the dark it all manifests.

Like dendrites as they work,
planted once, then bringing forth
the nutrients through the dirt,
all you need to grow well versed,
a mirror for what it’s worth
of what goes on unearthed,
bound to one place but still traversed.

Winter trees denote
the truth of the untold,
that the ways we grow
don’t always show
until we withstand the cold,
so let it be known
as above, so below.

– Valerie Parente (2-23-2025)

A Mystery

February 8, 2025February 10, 2025Leave a comment

A Mystery by Valerie Parente

When you were young
you wanted to be left alone
for the sole purpose
of attracting a hero.

You didn’t want to be a spouse
you didn’t want to be a camaraderie
you didn’t want to be a parent
you wanted to be a mystery.

You’d sit alone in silence
where smiles were forbidden
because if they understood how you felt
they’d lose all interest.

You were adolescent and vulnerable
and deep in your sins
but would you believe
you were still innocent?

Never call it a conscious choice
when you were tricked to choose
by the shadows in predispositions
trauma of the old and the new.

Despite it all, you wouldn’t call it hell
the pain you endured in the past
hell would have been going through it all
without the support system you had.

You nearly lost it all to the shadows
but you made it out with so much more
manifesting your own enlightenment
you became the hero you longed for.

It is no longer a mystery
how the light shined through
it came through all the cracks
of the hearts that broke for you.

And if you could tell your younger self
one little clue
let it be the resounding phrase
“I forgive you”.

– Valerie Parente (2-8-2025)

Scar Tissue

February 6, 2025February 7, 2025Leave a comment

Scar Tissue by Valerie Parente

You are designed
to heal from the inside out
it can be ugly on the surface
but you should be proud
because these marks take time
and show your defiance to pain
its the art of surviving
so unique to your shape.
You are your own hero
but don’t forget, you are human
and healing takes time
don’t make any sudden movements.
Know when to tend to wounds
and when pain’s at its end
remember, scars don’t bleed
unless you pick at them.

– Valerie Parente (2-6-2025)

Everything Is Magic

February 2, 2025February 2, 2025Leave a comment

Everything Is Magic by Valerie Parente

The wisemen say they don’t believe in magic.
They believe in reality.
But reality is magic.
You’ve just been conditioned not to see.

Symbols on a piece of parchment
can make you hear voices
see new worlds
weigh different choices.
They can prompt an epiphany
share cures or poisons
elicit joy or devastation
be one of the greatest forces.

Potions consumed from bottles
can perform a range of spells
course through your blood
send you to heaven or hell.
They can spark bravery
inhibitions, they can quell
they can make a shy man speak
become another version of himself.

Elixirs from the earth
are constantly feeding
giving energy to move
and keep your heart beating.
They fight off disease
they bind the bleeding
supercharged by a fireball
we call it sunlight gleaming.

Life creates life
from life, so it goes,
and in acts of love
we see another seed grow.
It’s all virtually impossible
but breath still flows
against all the odds
you exist, and you know.

The world is a magical place
the greatest fantasy we could ever witness
everything is extraordinary
the farthest thing from hopeless
you’ve just been taught
not to notice.

Dreamcatcher

January 4, 2025March 29, 2025Leave a comment

Dreamcatcher by Valerie Parente

To catch a dream
you must live with the thought
as if your dream
is already caught.

All you found in your sleep
cannot be lost
just write it down
to manifest the plot.

You’ve seen if before
you will see it again
this time, awake
the way you imagined.

Your dreams are manifestations of your mind.
Your mind is a manifestation of the universe.
Your universe is a manifestation of your dreams.
Creation never ends, it only morphs.

– Valerie Parente (1-4-2025)