Here is a list of the poems that were shared at our Annual Poetry Night December 11, 2025.
For most, I’ve included web links to the poems. The poems that were not available on-line appear after the list of titles.
Yours,
Karen
P.S. thanks to Sherrill for hunting down most of these links!
2025 Poetry Night Poems:
Laura Gilpin, “The Two Headed Calf,” https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/1626022/the-two-headed-calf
Edwin Muir, “The Animals,” https://allpoetry.com/The-Animals
Leo Herrara, “Illegals,” https://leoherrera.substack.com/p/illegals and “Gumballs” https://www.instagram.com/reel/DRdS97cDDlw/
James Whitcomb Riley, “When The Frost is on the Punkin,” https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44956/when-the-frost-is-on-the-punkin
Phyllis Pilisuk, “Lines on a Canvas,” “The Earth Giver,” and “Women’s Work” (see below)
Ye Hui, “The Connection,” https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/1723543/the-connection
William J. Harris, “A Winter Song,” https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/159460/a-winter-song-63b58b4884339
Jennifer Huang, “Gender Euphoria and the Superbloom,” https://poets.org/poem/gender-euphoria-and-superbloom
Mary Oliver, “The Wren from Carolina,” https://jamesmacmillan.wordpress.com/2023/10/29/the-wren-from-carolina-by-mary-oliver/
Azula Margaret Jaggar, “Death Valley” from her chat book Confessional (see below)
Andrea Gibson, “Time Piece,” (I couldn’t find the full text on-line, but here is a moving video of the poet reciting passages from the piece: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvdLN4ChwRo )
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Three Poems by Phyllis E. Pilisuk from her book Images of a Woman
Lines on a Canvas
Lines on a canvas, stroked vigorously
Her destiny is unseen but here
Death or a carnival
Both.
Merely a speck in the universe
She seeks, she gives
Hand to hand contact
Don’t ask success
Or such trivia
Her destiny,
A tea pot of courage.
The Earth Giver
I am the earth giver
My belly feeds you
its roots and berries
I cushion your walk
as you travel the path;
I sing to you
through the tall grass;
I protect you from the hot sun
with my green-leafed canopies.
I make you and altar
of my favorite blossoms,
And I bury you
in my darkest caves.
Women’s Work
Women work ceaselessly
to give men the chance
to ask what they want,
to create what they can,
play as the wish,
like babes or scoundrels.
Women’s work is unnoticed.
Done without a sound,
strokes in the water,
receiving only half a smile,
half a growl
in response.
--------------------------------------------------------
A poem by Azula Margaret Jaggar from her chat book Confessional
Death Valley
At midnight, in summer,
The birds still sing in my hometown.
I cannot flee any farther west.
Still, I am always wishing to escape
Somewhere no sole has touched the earth.
Perhaps this is why I love the desert—
That swallowing silence, the Milky Way
Undarkening the sky.
Let me unloose my shirt from my breast,
Allow sweat to shed shame—like dust—
From the corners of my eyes.