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@ Anthony DiFiglio
2025-05-26 13:57:30All this strategy,\ goal talk,\ and organizational jargon —
has me slipping into this
arial,\ 12-point font,\ double spaced,\ embedded-with-citations\ state of mind.
My pen moves\ without permission.
I am inspired by nature.\ By the broad spectrum.\ The all-encompassing vision of the world.
If I give myself blinders\ for more than a couple laps around the track,\ I go mad.
Sometimes I talk to people\ who also wear these blinders.
But I now know —\ these are not conversations I want to have.
I will protect the creative landscape.
Let my imagination\ rip through the echo of conformity.
It keeps the sacred gears\ from rusting in mediocrity.
I don’t need anyone’s sludge\ getting into those gears.
I am as honest\ as I can be.
And to gunk up the gears\ speculating future problems \ is not worth the brain space.
Brain space is not for simulating disaster.\ It’s not for rehearsing regret.
It’s for playing and moving pieces around as if it were a live symphony.
It’s not a rehearsed play.\ It’s all impromptu.
I read my energy.\ The crowd.\ The weather.\ The rhythm of life.
If I’m not myself,\ then I better run every last thought\ through ChatGPT\ before submitting.
Life stripped of this noise\ is always closer to living.
When you are done\ producing predictable content,
produce vibrant, living content\ that shakes people up\ and leaves them\ with difficult questions.
The striking quotations\ that nobody has dared to touch.
You can’t out-train your addictions.\ You can’t supplement what your soul is starving for.
If you are still broken\ by insecurity,\ doubt,\ or inhibition —
you’ve found the largest leak in your system.
If you are still impacted\ by your childhood,\ your ex,\ your past —
today’s energy is stifled.
This is a callout.\ Not to shame.\ But to direct your energy\ to the most obvious place.
Society’s upgrades\ can only distract you from your pain.
No exchange program gets you there.\ And the world is happy to support your avoidance and sedation.
If you want to go someplace\ you aren’t now,
you cannot do it\ carrying this burden.
Today is another day\ to get honest.
Another day\ to acknowledge the places\ only the most respectable version of you\ would tell you to look.
The ones who will go to these places\ will be challenged.
The price will be everything.\ The pay will be nothing.
And what more can a man want\ than that agonizing space —
in his heart,\ in his head,\ his chest,\ or in his bed —
to be as empty\ as the open sky
you can imagine now\ with your mind’s eye.