From “The Second Coming” by William Butler Yeats.
From “The Second Coming” by William Butler Yeats.
COUNSELOR: Poetry Crisis Line, what is your emergency?
CALLER: Turning and turning
COUNSELOR: Have you tried switching off the dryer?
CALLER: In the widening gyre
COUNSELOR: No, I said the dryer. Can you hear me OK?
CALLER: The falcon cannot hear the falconer.
COUNSELOR: I get a code name? How exciting!
CALLER: Things fall apart.
COUNSELOR: What things? Or is this more code? You can’t hear me because I’m breaking up?
CALLER: The centre cannot hold.
COUNSELOR: I see. What sort of center did you escape from, exactly?
CALLER: Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.
COUNSELOR: It certainly sounds like it. Would you consider going back to that center and checking yourself in again?