"Like a tunnel that you follow to a tunnel of its own Down a hollow to a cavern where the sun has never shone Like a door that keeps revolving in a half-forgotten dream" The Windmills of Your Mind is a song with music by French composer Michel Legrand and English lyrics written by Americans Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman. The French lyrics, under the title "Les moulins de mon cœur", were written by Eddy Marnay. The song (with the English lyrics) was used as the theme for the 1968 film, The Thomas Crown Affair. The opening two melodic sentences were borrowed from Mozart's second movement from his Sinfonia Concertante for Violin, Viola and Orchestra, K. 364. [Wikipedia] The lyrics are very fascinating to me. It seems to me that the poet tries to show a glimpse of how our thinking can go through an infinite loop of concepts and objects and their associations. Round like a circle in a spiral Like a wheel within a wheel Never ending on beginning On an ever-spinning reel Like a snowball down a mountain Or a carnival balloon Like a carousel that's turning Running rings around the moon Like a clock whose hands are sweeping Past the minutes on its face And the world is like an apple Whirling silently in space Like the circles that you find In the windmills of your mind Like a tunnel that you follow To a tunnel of its own Down a hollow to a cavern Where the sun has never shone Like a door that keeps revolving In a half-forgotten dream Or the ripples from a pebble Someone tosses in a stream Like a clock whose hands are sweeping Past the minutes on its face And the world is like an apple Whirling silently in space Like the circles that you find In the windmills of your mind Keys that jingle in your pocket Words that jangle in your head Why did summer go so quickly? Was it something that I said? Lovers walk along a shore And leave their footprints in the sand Was the sound of distant drumming Just the fingers of your hand? Pictures hanging in a hallway Or the fragment of a song Half-remembered names and faces But to whom do they belong? When you knew that it was over Were you suddenly aware That the autumn leaves were turning To the color of her hair? Like a circle in a spiral Like a wheel within a wheel Never ending or beginning On an ever-spinning reel As the images unwind Like the circles that you find In the windmills of your mind