Tag: Valerie Parente

Mental Growth

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Mental Growth by Valerie Parente

How many times
have we heard that saying
“you need to go through pain to grow”?
How many times
did we try to cheat the system
when all we really did was postpone?
Well I always knew I would break
I just kept putting off the date
now I’ve had a year to mature
and the growth is ten times more
but the one thing I need to try
is never to celebrate being right
because the moment I place value on being correct
I’d undermine my newfound self-respect.

I didn’t heal thinking I was right about everything
I healed when I accepted being right didn’t mean a thing.

– Valerie Parente (3-19-2021)

Heart On Your Sleeve

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Heart On Your Sleeve by Valerie Parente

It’s your choice
if you want to wear your heart on your sleeve
but don’t be surprised
when people see it bleed.
And I’m so sorry
if I traumatized you when I was in pain
but I can’t hide my feelings
without going insane.
I’m making that choice
to once again wear my heart on my sleeve
so don’t be afraid
when you see the heartbeat.

– Valerie Parente (3-16-2021)


You Look Like You’ve Seen A Ghost

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You Look Like You’ve Seen A Ghost by Valerie Parente

It’s very surreal
when the thing that haunted you for 10 months
is confirmed to be real.

It’s very relieving
when the thing that made you question your sanity
was worth believing.

It’s very humbling
when the thing you swore you knew beyond a doubt
was not for nothing.

It’s very comforting
when the hurt and the heal and the hope you achieved
has a little company.

– Valerie Parente (3-15-2021)

Moonchild Manifesto

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Moonchild Manifesto by Valerie Parente

You are a Moonchild.
You embody moods like phases in orbital rotations.
Every moving body comes in cycles
around a world you set your mind to.
That’s when the words begin to flow
like the tides under your gravitational pull.
You fall and you feel and you break,
wondering how others could be so unfazed.
Because you are in love night and day
while the rest are just lost in space.

– Valerie Parente (2-23-2021)

I Want To Coexist

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I Want To Coexist by Valerie Parente

Letting myself be happy
because of someone I love
is my most difficult struggle
because if I let someone bring me happiness
then what’s to stop them from taking it away?
And I don’t want to be a hostage
of someone else’s mind-frame.

I want to love again
but I don’t want to relearn
my life’s hardest lesson.
How do people do it?
How do people have relationships without surrendering their sanity?
I wish I could do it.
I wish I could do it and feel free.
And maybe my problem
is that I think in extremes,
but how am I supposed to love someone
outside of me
without making myself
their responsibility?

If I’m being perfectly honest,
I want to coexist.
I guess I just have to find that balance.

– Valerie Parente (3-11-2021)

Through Hell (Is The Way Out)

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Through Hell (Is The Way Out) by Valerie Parente

The longer you feed that unhealthy mental state,
trying and trying to avoid the tallest flames,
that fire is only going to expand its space,
and engulf you into a larger blaze.

I had to go through a brutal kind of hell,
to address a prolonged flaw with my mental health,
a problem that put too much pressure on someone else,
and now I finally feel like the best version of myself.

– Valerie Parente (3-10-2021)

Please Keep Your Cynicism To Yourself

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Please Keep Your Cynicism To Yourself by Valerie Parente

Cynicism is a choice.
It is a choice to be void.
You are welcome to not believe in a higher being,
but don’t you dare shut down those who found it and its meaning;
people who have crawled out of the darkness of addiction and grief,
people who survived because they had something outside themself to believe.
If you look at these miracles and roll your eyes at the world,
and think “I’m way too smart to believe in something more”,
then your problem isn’t intelligence,
your problem is stone cold arrogance.
Just because you do not see the benefit of it,
does not mean the benefit does not exist.

Please, do the world a favor next time,
when you want to shame the people who survived,
treat the world like you treat the herbs you smoke,
take a deep breathe, then let it go.

– Valerie Parente (3-10-2021)

One Thing Is Certain… Seasons Change

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One Thing Is Certain… Seasons Change by Valerie Parente

Days are getting longer,
sunlight shining down,
the sound of burning rubber,
in this cute little town,
and I wouldn’t change a thing,
even if it kept you around.

Sitting on these bleachers,
so far below the clouds,
last year I sat here in torment,
wondering where, when, and how
I’d ever begin to forget the good times,
unaware remembering was allowed.

I mistook peace for apathy,
clinging on to a heavy frown,
thinking loneliness all alone,
was worse than loneliness in a crowd,
but I’ve found my peace of mind,
and in my lonesome it was found.

I’m happier today,
with my feet on the ground,
no more unfair expectations,
in a psyche so loud,
I proved I can survive,
a sadness so profound,
it didn’t make sense at the time,
but I can make sense of it now.

– Valerie Parente (3-9-2021)

Pixie Dust

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Pixie Dust by Valerie Parente

Little nymph with rainbow wings,
sprinkling pixie dust,
making the darkness sparkle,
with her magic touch.

Little fairy with sharp intuition,
seeing auras through glass eyes,
your energy is clear to her,
even when you try to hide.

Little creature of the forest,
with empathy like the stars,
she envisions how you feel,
dividing light in equal parts.

Their whimsical spirits exceed the days,
like totems passed down the human race,
so very minuscule in this time and place,
yet endless in the sentiments they convey.

– Valerie Parente (3-8-2021)

Abandoned Castle

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Abandoned Castle by Valerie Parente

She thought she had it all figured out
when she was young
dreaming of a big grand castle
glowing under the sun.
She thought she would live in a fairytale
when she grew up
dancing in a glorious castle
a place to fall in love.

The years piled on
the castle’s appeal faded.
Some say she grew up
some say she grew jaded.
Love is not as simple
as the moss that covers stone.
Dreams are not meaningful
until you fail, then you grow.
Now ivy on the walls
climbs up so very tall
and with dreams so big
she began to feel small.
That’s when the abandonment happened
and she realized fantasies can cause harm
often inflated by a toxic desire
so she decided to move on.

Tale be told, she abandoned her castle
but that is no more than folklore;
she didn’t abandon that castle
that castle abandoned her
and that turned out to be
the castle’s greatest favor
for when the fantasizing ceased
she began to enjoy the real world.

– Valerie Parente (3-7-2021)