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The Alchemy Project

Envisioned by William Szostak and Phoenix Mayet, The Alchemy Project features a collection of 80 prose poems written by the pair over the course of 40 nights. Work on the project began with the creation of “The Imaginationist Manifesto” in September 2006. The manifesto encourages artists to investigate the busy and sometimes dangerous intersections that exist in our universe – religion and science, masculine and feminine, the internal and the external. The authors assert that it is through these trespasses and transgressions that art is created. Using the manifesto as a reference point and guide, the pair crafted poems that feature transmutations both large and small.

Some favorite first lines of Alchemy Project poems:

• “The anesthesiologist told me to count backwards from ten.”
• “She had once mentioned something about jello wrestling.”
• “The only way up is down and through.”
• “Their marriage counselor was named after a Protestant theologian, but he wasn’t the judgmental type.”

Enjoy a sample of Alchemy Project poems.

Portions of The Alchemy Project have been presented at events sponsored by the Portsmouth Poet Laureate Program.