{"id":468,"date":"2026-01-15T20:39:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T20:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tallblackguy.com\/write\/?p=468"},"modified":"2026-01-15T20:39:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T20:39:11","slug":"goals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tallblackguy.com\/write\/2026\/01\/15\/goals\/","title":{"rendered":"Goals."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I am trying to be more purposeful in the media I consume, and try to drag myself out of the doldrums of watching others create and not doing myself. I am trying not to scroll IG or Pinterest, tagging things I want to draw that other people already have in an attempt to learn or mimic or re-interpret. I am trying to be more…driven to make.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My habits, as far as visual arts go, have been honed over a lifetime on the internet watching other people make awesome things. As far as the literary arts go, I’m usually reading a book and can’t easily pull out or analyze what I’m reading to inspire my own writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then I read this<\/a>, and it reminded me, much like when I listen to some great rap bars or an exquisitely turned simile, what I want to do with my own words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I sent it to a few friends, and one called it “chaotic”. That’s not exactly a ringing endorsement of the style, but it at least evokes a reaction more pointed than “this was all right” or “I ain’t reading all that.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u00a0Love for a poet resists justification like a canyon resists being captured by an iPhone camera. There\u2019s a fugitive hugeness.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I mean…yes. I get it . Why don’t my words come out like this?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\n

Some might call this a hallucination induced by modern fandom, an effect of the parasocial phenomenon that\u2019s been observed ad nauseam.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I would think of these words…eventually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this paragraph here is the pinnacle of this article, which, I will admit, I was not intending to read because of my avarice to its subject matter:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

It\u2019s the common mistake of talented people to believe it\u2019s they who possess the talent and not the other way around. Talent is a tenant that collects rent. I don\u2019t say this to undercut her abilities. It\u2019s the opposite: She is talent incarnate, manifestly representative of its boons and its Faustian bargain. Talent reduces you to a host. Your best stuff\u00a0visits<\/em>\u00a0you while you fumble haplessly for pen and paper to take dictation. Your worst stuff? It\u2019s when you try too hard. When you interfere. It\u2019s a cruel arrangement. You are a secretary at best, a captive at worst.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

GotDAMN. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am trying to be more purposeful in the media I consume, and try to drag myself out of the doldrums of watching others create and not doing myself. I am trying not to scroll IG or Pinterest, tagging things I want to draw that other people already have in an attempt to learn or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tallblackguy.com\/write\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tallblackguy.com\/write\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tallblackguy.com\/write\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tallblackguy.com\/write\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tallblackguy.com\/write\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tallblackguy.com\/write\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":469,"href":"https:\/\/www.tallblackguy.com\/write\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468\/revisions\/469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tallblackguy.com\/write\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tallblackguy.com\/write\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tallblackguy.com\/write\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}