Excellent! I hope people come and add their own versions!

I'm somewhat proud of myself for guessing "the ship goes around the station" before we got it in the text.

My mother says it all goes around.
The Disc goes around the elephants,
it all goes around...

My mother said it all goes around
the green grass grows all around all around
it all goes around

and I'm not going to try adapting
Wheel is turning and you can't slow down
you can't let go and you can't hold on
you can't go back and you can't stand still
if the thunder don't get you than the lightning will
...
Round round robin run around
Gotta get back where you belong
Little bit harder, just a little bit more
Little bit farther than you than you've gone before

My mama said don't go round that river
Don't you be hanging around old Catfish John
it all goes around

My mother says it all goes around.
Crack crack crack, another chick is born.
Peep peep peep peep, peep peep peep,
Peep peep peep, it all goes around.

More verses and attribution; live recording in a pub.

My mother said, it all goes around
A time to every purpose
It all goes around.

My mother said, it all goes around
A time to be born and to die
It all goes around.

My mother said, it all goes around
A time of war, a time of peace
It all goes around.

My mother said it all goes around,
The seasons go around
It all goes around

My mother said it all goes around
The Lord and the Lady go around...

Wait, what?

My mother said it all goes around
Babies are born
in the Circle of the Sun

My mother said it all goes around
Children take their first step
in the Circle of the Sun

My mother said it all goes around
Children speak their first word
in the Circle of the Sun

My mother said it all goes around
I hope to be married
in the Circle of the Sun

My mother said it all goes around
I hope to die (spread my ashes)
in the Circle of the Sun

My mother said it all goes around
Clouds to the North
Clouds to the South
Wind and rain to the East and the West
in the Circle of the Sun

My mother said it all goes around
Babies are born
in the Circle of the Sun

—which is also a delightful circular zipper song you can add infinite verses to (like Dakota Dave Hull's "hate to shovel snow" verse), an excellent thing in any proper earwormy lullabye, for which you might just need an infinity of verses from time to time.

My mother said it all goes around
There's more to see than can be seen
It all goes around

My mother said it all goes around
There's more to do than can be done
It all goes around

My mother said it all goes around
The Circle of Life, it moves us all
It all goes around

My mother said it all goes around
The Twists go around the lighthouse
It all goes around

My mother said it all goes around
The Gribbles go around the Twists
It all goes around

My mother said it all goes around
the ribbing goes around the needle
It all goes around

There once was a duck who was God,
Who said, It's exceedingly odd.
I fly when I wish
and I swim like a fish...

The best I can manage is:

When I quack, the whole river is awed.

Any better submissions?

"People worship the water I trod," perhaps?

(brought to you by the New Wave.)

My mother says it all goes around
Pick a bale a day
It all goes around

***

My mother says it all goes around
Now and then I'm lonely
It all goes around

My mother says it all goes around
Now and then I'm tired
It all goes around

My mother says it all goes around
Now and then I'm nervous
It all goes around

My mother says it all goes around (bright eyes)
Now and then I fall apart
It all goes around

For anybody who works better with an additional arbitrary constraint, I'll note that it could be argued that proper respect for the history of limericks requires the final rhyme to be "quad".

Also the recording they used to play on loop in a side room at the Air & Space Museum that sang "My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizza-Pies" to the tune of Sawney River.

Neither of these is very like, though.

guitar solo

Some things just won't shut up until you let them out.

http://www.annleckie.com/2015/07/08/and-the-winner-is/

And I'll have you know that I've been thoroughly earwormed by the Foz Meadows tune to "My mother said" etc. I love it. :D

I'm full of admiration for people who can do the words of one song to the tune of another of which there are examples upthread. I can't do it & when someone else does it, weird things happen to my head: feels simultaneously neat & uncomfortable.

(And a lot of other things, since it's in ballad metre, but some work better than others.)

And in mine, the song is not unrelated to rosaries, which ties in the original meaning of paternosters...

My Mother says it all goes around
Amen then begin again
It all goes around

My Mother says it all goes around
The Aves and the Pater Nosters
It all goes around

My Mother says it all goes around
The sequence of the mysteries
It all goes around.

My Mother says it all goes around
Joyful, Sorrow, Glorious*
It all goes around.

-----
* Sorry, Luminous fans

Abi: Thanks for a(nother) delightful thread, and for a new repetitive thing to soothe the six-year old with in the wee hours. First-grade nightmares are a pain.

Songs to the tune of another: Portuguese leftists tend to sing "Parabéns a voçê" ("Happy Birthday") to the chorus of "The Internationale". I just recently heard someone do it the other way around, which was kind of creepy. I always wondered if this hapenned in other countries. I can't quite make it scan in English, but that could just be me.

My mother says it all goes around,
Younger lands will take the crown
it all goes around

My mother says it all goes around
Perish if you will not grow
it all goes around

My mother says it all goes around
Time won't drive us down to dust
it all goes around

My mother says it all goes around
Summer's glory, blood and wine
it all goes around

My mother says it all goes around
Autumn's gifts are dearly bought
it all goes around

My mother says it all goes around
Winter's wisdom hunger brings
it all goes around

I could add Day and Night, but that would make six verses, and somehow making it six feels wrong.

duckbunny, #51: Very nice!

My mother says that all's gone that's gone.
The sea-born creature dies on land
When it is trod upon.
What's given to you burns your hand,
But all's gone that's gone.

My mother says that all's gone that's gone.
What's here is there, the high is low,
And all may be undone.
And what is true no two men know,
But all's gone that's gone.

My mother says that all's gone that's gone.
The ones with choices need not choose,
While those who must have none.
We only love what we can lose,
And all's gone that's gone.

This is just to say

I have orbited
the station
that goes around
the moon

And which
you were probably
hoping
to control

Forgive me
my mother says
it all
goes around.

My mother said it all goes around
Movement shapes the atoms,
It all goes around.

My mother said it all goes around
Atoms shape the living things,
It all goes around.

My mother said it all goes around
Living shapes the thinking mind,
It all goes around.

My mother said it all goes around
The mind shapes our concepts,
It all goes around.

My mother said it all goes around
Concepts shape the numbers,
It all goes around.

My mother said it all goes around
The ship's never gonna run around and desert you
Never gonna make you cry

My mother said it all goes around
I've taken all my protein pills,
It all goes around.

My mother said it all goes around
I'm floating in my tin can,,
It all goes around.

My mother said it all goes around
The planet Earth is blue,
It all goes around.

My mother said it all goes around
And there's nothing I can do,
It all goes around.

My mother said it all goes around
Electrons find their paths
It all goes around

My mother said it all goes around
The universe winds down
It all goes around

My mother said it all goes around
Bear witness. Iterate.
It all goes around.

My toddler has now added the original to the things she recites bits of spontaneously (in this case, while waving one toy around another, so they were in fact going around.)

I've been loving all of these.

Meanwhile, this one fell out of the clouds and hit me last night:

My mother said it all goes around
The seasons they go round and round
It all goes around

My mother said it all goes around
The painted ponies go up and down
It all goes around

My mother said it all goes around
Around and round and round in a circle game
It all goes around

So I posted the first verse.

My mother says it all goes around
Like a wheel within a wheel
It all goes around

My mother says it all goes around
Like the windmills of your mind
It all goes around