English 5599 - Creative Writing For Teachers
Spiral As a Metaphor
Spiral
Endless spiral,
whorl and twirl,
unbroken turning,
churning, spinning.
I am Spiral, endless spiral.
Faster, stronger, brilliant blur.
Cannot anchor, curving faster.
Whirling whirlwind,
twirling twister,
mammoth helix,
coiling,
spin.
Rising? Falling?
Hard to tell.
Where's my center,
up or down?
Escalate?
Degenerate?
Rocket, plummet,
I will spin.
Cannot stop,
Will not stop,
Dare not stop and cease to be.
For this spiral is my life,
And life is nothing more than me.
Finding the right metaphor for spiral was difficult for me. I wanted to use spiral not simply in its noun form as a metaphor-even though this was the main task-, but also as a verb. When I began to think about the act of spiraling, I could not decide if the object of my spiraling was going up or down. In the poem (which is the third attempt at poetry this semester), I came to realize that the object is a spiral in the sense that his/her existence has no anchor. There is a real agnostic struggle in the poem that ultimately ends nihilistically. It is as close to existentialism as I have ever come in my musings.
The line, "Faster, stronger, brilliant blur" shows a kind of oxymoron. There is a brilliance to a life that seems the light of knowledge. But because the pace is so rapid and life is but a vapor, everything is a blur. Life is not on a timeline, but on a sharp curve with no pockets to cling to. Then there is the question of center. Is the object rising or falling? This question is unanswered in the poem, but one thing is certain. The object will continue to spin, because when he stops, he dies.