ALCHEMY OF ART AND PAIN

These tears we let flow
Through art we create
Feeling painful emotions
That we no longer sedate

Loving to numb
Getting high was our thing
We chased euphoria
Now we live to stay clean

Enchained by addiction
We fled our insecurities
Gripped by toxic shame
We escaped psycho-chemically

Now we survive our feelings
Our emotions are psychic fuel
Alchemized by imagination
Crafting metaphors bold and new

Alchemy transforms
Creating precious finery
Turning base metals
Into gold psychic jewelry

We transform pain into art
Molding disease into creation
Supplanting addiction with connection
Awakening seismic imagination

We are armored by love
Ensconced in empathy
Alchemy turns pain into beauty
Potent emotional magic embodied

Collage of Basquiat is co-created by the poem’s authors

–GOTHIC ANGEL & BYPO PHOENIX c)2024