The Top

Phrases turn to meet their twisting needs
till like a spinning, wobbling top
the meaning falls away.

This is the game at which we play
like children in the rain,
who spin and laugh and spin again–
why should they ever change?

The gyre spins the ship around
in part because it can.
To question it, to tame the wind,
beyond the scope of man.

The world it laughs with every wind,
it cries with every gull,
it spins with every lover’s heart,
and with their children falls.
The very force that turns the world
is turning at us all.

Part of the Book Seasons of Thought

All Poems →

Other things to read

• Evening Praise
  A poem from Seasons of Thought by D.S. Chapman
• Evergreen
  🌲 A poem by D.S. Chapman
• Time must now sit still
  A haiku by D.S. Chapman