Reviewed on 12/20/25
★★★★★
The endlessness/ of change and sea and fire and sky/ will be stirring once again beneath/ the leaves.
“There Is the Endlessness” has the poignant energy of fireworks in the night sky. Michael Bazzett starts with a scientific imagination of time’s geometry, “sliced inwardly.” “Inward” captures the depth of our space; Bazzett explores time not as flowing water, but a blooming lotus, its magnificent beauty unfurling, layer by layer.
As the poem slices open time’s surface, we see “change and sea and fire and sky/ … stirring once again beneath/ the leaves.” Packed within every moment of the universe’s being, these pixelated elements epitomize the dazzling lushness of life. The imageries, textured like a Polaroid, are both mystical and arresting.
Bazzett then moves from the abstract forms into concrete life — “like the toad you once/ held as a child.” The lively, contrasted with the metaphysical, pieces together an ever-flowing kaleidoscopic collage. The speaker adds a warm touch to the image — “its pale throat/ pulsing soft as water.” This moment’s tenderness transforms the poem into a romantic tribute to life and memory, which lands with “you [letting] it go.” Our existence’s sweet infinity has seeped into every breath we take.
Full Poem: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/1740115/there-is-the-endlessness
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