Today’s fortune is much too long to be a proper poem title, and maybe that’s why I had to give it a bit more thought. I know it refers to war, but my mind went to one of those merry-go-round things on a playground when I thought of revolutions. Nope, despair ain’t gonna turn one of those around. You definitely have to have hope backing you up, specifically hope that if you spend a bunch of energy getting it going good, you can then hop on and flop on your back and enjoy the ride.

So that’s where “Spin Cycle” came from. I wrote it in a sort of ghazal format. I’m still not sure I’m writing ghazals correctly. There are a lot of rules, and if I didn’t follow all of them, this poem is five couplets with a weird rhyme scheme.

Enjoy!

It is hope, not despair, which makes successful revolutions.

Spin Cycle
By Michelle Garren-Flye

I’ll spin around, right round, I won’t lose heart;
Spin right back to the start and never lose heart.

It’s hope that keeps me going, you see,
around in a circle, refusing to lose heart.

Despair drags me down, right to the ground,
but hope lifts me up, won’t let me lose heart.

Come spin with me on this cycle of life;
take my hands, remember, you can’t lose heart.

I’ll spin so fast, my feet will leave earth,
fly away, leave it all behind, my lost heart.