Strange Loops

From No Mind Left Unblown

Strange Loops

I had this thought inside my head:
What would happen if I said?
I had this thought inside my head
What would happen, what would happen…

If I said, If I said…

What I am about to tell you is true
But what I just said is a lie
Just go ahead and think it through
It’s a knot which won’t untie

So, I found this Escher in Pandora’s Box
Under piles of mind-bending paradox
Time-traveling grand-father killing clocks
Irresistible forces and immovable rocks

It was an Escher, but not just any Escher
It was a sketch of Escher as Escher does
Dig, it was an intricate picture
Escher, drawing every Escher that ever was

There seems to be no way to know
If you can really know what I mean
If you’ve ever spied the spiral glow
Or even seen what I call green
We’re a story told in alphabet soup
With just enough ink to link the chain
Just a group of strange strange loops
That the void could not contain

Yes, Escher drew a time machine
Functional in every way
Illustrating in reiterating scenes
Whatever he drew on that day

It was a nested set of images
Showing Escher as a spectator
Considering infinite visages
Of the self-generating creator

My first thought was to dive right in
But the second was more clever
So I grabbed my collection of Escher’s prints
Without a third thought whatsoever

Well, he didn’t seem surprised when I arrived
A tourist on a trans-temporal hike
But when he saw what I’d brought along
Oh, hell, M.C. Escher dropped the mike!

Vat have you done? He demanded of me
This intrusion is unauthorized!
You have broken the laws of causality
And violated my copyrights beside!

There seems to be no way to know
If you can really know what I mean
If you’ve ever spied the spiral glow
Or even seen what I call green
We’re a story told in alphabet soup
With just enough ink to link the chain
Just a group of strange strange loops
That the void could not contain

The strangest part is this living thing
Hardly seems natural at all
Strings of code self-replicating
On this suspiciously habitable ball

Which comes first:
The thought or the word
The seed or the tree?
The egg or the bird?
What sounds do they make
If none are heard?
What vision is seen
When the blueprint is blurred?

Now, what I’m about to tell you is true
But what I just said is a lie
Just go ahead and think it through
It’s a knot which won’t untie

There seems to be no way to know
If you can really know what I mean
If you’ve ever spied the spiral glow
Or even seen what I call green
We’re a story told in alphabet soup
With just enough ink to link the chain
Just a group of strange strange loops
That the void could not contain

I had this thought inside my head
What would happen if I said:
I had this thought inside my head
And I wondered what would happen if I said…

This statement is false….