The Circle Game

is a song by Joni Mitchell. And it is about - time. A commentary on YouTube by @richardmercer2337 says: I have a PhD in Mathematical Physics, but if you ask me What is Time?, I would say listen to this song. I can't do any better, and I'm not sure anyone can. I can't listen to it without crying. Thank you Joni.

Bright circles drift across the darkness like fragments of memory—playful, luminous, and yet strangely elusive. Red, blue, and green forms overlap and recede, while the white, almost frantic strokes seem to interrupt their movement, suggesting traces of something that has already passed. The circles appear to move in no fixed direction, yet their repetition creates a subtle sense of rhythm and return.

In this interplay of movement, repetition, and dissolution, the image echoes the central feeling of Joni Mitchell’s The Circle Game: the passage of time and the way life continually moves forward while also seeming to return to familiar patterns. What initially appears joyful and spontaneous carries a quieter melancholy. The circles are beautiful precisely because they cannot be held still.

If you'd like to listen to this song now, click here.