attack the day
sometimes people get in a rut
from all the sameness of life —
the human animal can get tired
of day-in-day-out monotony,
of regular old boring patterns…
it’s why people climb mountains,
it’s why they join cults,
it’s why they jump out of planes…
it can be easy to forget we’re alive
when we can’t feel the blood
pumping through our veins…
we admire the hungry beasts
who want a thing and go after it
with unrelenting pursuit,
because as peaceful as we are
with each other in the daylight,
we are still in need of something…
so we push ourselves —
we break records, we traverse
unspeakable terrains
to become survival machines
even when everything is already
provided for us, we are full,
we have more than we need,
and yet in our tedium,
in our listlessness,
where we always do
so much less than we can,
we find ourselves
fundamentally dead…
so what else can we do
but attack the day?
even if the attacks are for play,
even if the battles are fake,
even if the victories are hollow
even when the accolades
are so fucking abstract
as to exist only in our minds
Garbage Notes:
With this poem I wanted to capture some of the tension that exists between enjoying life as it is, safe and sound in our comfortable homes, and the desire for danger and adventure.
I’ve talked before about how I’m oddly drawn to the survival genre. I often find myself watching survival shows and documentaries. Anything where regular people push themselves to the limit, often to find themselves in very precarious situations.
Many of these foolhardy adventurers go to such extremes that they find themselves on the brink of death. Living on the edge is exhilarating, but it has a price.
What I admire about these brave risk-takers is that they’re putting themselves in immense danger to feel something. To feel alive! Often attempting to prove that they have what it takes to survive, even in the most perilous circumstances.
It’s incredible to watch them beat the odds against nature and the elements. To persist even when their backs are against the wall. Whether they’re hungry, or they’re freezing, or they’re being chased by ravenous animals, they demonstrate a killer instinct that we all know we once had.
It’s the kind of thing that makes you wonder, if I were in that situation, would I find it in me to do similar things to survive?
It’s easy in our day-to-day monotony to forget we have millions of years of natural selection driving us to this moment. That we only exist because our ancestors fought and struggled and did whatever it took to pass on their genes to the next generation. All those instincts, all that ingenuity, all that fire and desire. That’s still inside us. Somewhere. Dormant.
It’s there when we push that button for the elevator. It’s there when we hold the door open for the person behind us. It’s there when we shake a stranger’s hand. We ignore it, though. Because to be a survival machine in today’s society, it often means putting your head down, compromising, going along to get along.
Today, sadly, it can be too easy to survive by closing our eyes, ignoring the things we truly want, and pretending like the life we have is the one we chose.
Now, I’m not saying upend your life and go sky diving. I’m not advocating for you to go on some safari and chase hyenas or climb Mount Everest to feel alive. I’m just saying look out for the things that stir that fire in you, even a little bit. Pay attention to the stuff that lights you up. And do more of it.
Maybe your new adventure involves making something—creating something new that didn’t exist before. Maybe it involves writing something you never thought you’d write. Or asking to collaborate with someone you never thought you’d get along with. Maybe it’s having a conversation with a stranger. Or taking a difficult class. Who knows, it could be anything.
Whatever it is—don’t just do the same old-same old shit all the time. Take some chances. Be a little risky. Attack the fucking day, like, more than just metaphorically.
Franco Amati 2025
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There's a deep sadness to this, but an eternal truth. The title is almost ironic in that way you hear bosses and motivational speakers tell crowds of sheep to attack the day, when they know every well that all they can do is meander around in circles in their pen. You have a way of capturing that quiet desperation of everyday life and giving it a profound voice. Keep up up man.
“Today, sadly, it can be too easy to survive by closing our eyes, ignoring the things we truly want, and pretending like the life we have is the one we chose.” —- this hits.