“Combustion” 102x54 mm (acrylic and collage, over cork)

At the crossroads,

of decisions or events,

I suffer…

Why this, now or to me?...,

I shout the question to my deaf ears,

I seek the answer within my question,

and I see myself mute with an empty gaze in a dark background.

I remain still, without hope of an answer,

I fall into misfortune without knowing where to go,

without knowing how to stay within myself.

​

And suddenly….

when the black becomes too heavy,

a faint light flickers, trembling and uncertain…

But it grows, and grows, and glows until it becomes fire,

a bonfire that feeds on my wood…

and the black becomes charcoal,

and the flame becomes light.

I awaken in this dance step…

Reality becomes the past,

and the experience… memories.

Memories that I want burned,

that blaze in flames

that dance to my senses

in rhythms of escape.

Those moments that torment,

those experiences that hinder,

I want the fire to burn them.

I want it to consume them.

Let the pains fuel the flame.

Let them burn quickly and high.

​

Then I leap over that bonfire.

I turn the experience to ashes.

I overcome pains and laments.

It is the life of those flames

that fills me with vigor.

Exhaled warmth that calms my present

in which I lose myself in reflection,

and I prepare for what comes after.

I learn.

I question and embrace the experience

repairing the shards of this self-esteem,

reinforcing my dominion.

Self-confidence.

​

Without burned memories

I am a stagnant Self.

Stopped in time.

​

Come then the darkness,

come the pain,

come the flame,

come the dance…

For in it I grow.

​

Paulo Teixeira Lopes 2025