December 2025: Poetry Night

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:

1. Laura Gilpin, “The Two Headed Calf,” https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/1626022/the-two-headed-calf

2. Edwin Muir, “The Animals,” https://allpoetry.com/The-Animals

3. Leo Herrara, “Illegals,” https://leoherrera.substack.com/p/illegals and “Gumballs” https://www.instagram.com/reel/DRdS97cDDlw/

4. James Whitcomb Riley, “When The Frost is on the Punkin,” https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44956/when-the-frost-is-on-the-punkin

5. Phyllis Pilisuk, “Lines on a Canvas,” “The Earth Giver,” and “Women’s Work” (see below)

6. Ye Hui, “The Connection,” https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/1723543/the-connection

7. William J. Harris, “A Winter Song,” https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/159460/a-winter-song-63b58b4884339

8. Jennifer Huang, “Gender Euphoria and the Superbloom,” https://poets.org/poem/gender-euphoria-and-superbloom

9. Mary Oliver, “The Wren from Carolina,” https://jamesmacmillan.wordpress.com/2023/10/29/the-wren-from-carolina-by-mary-oliver/

10. Azula Margaret Jaggar, “Death Valley” from her chat book Confessional (see below)

11. 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 )

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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.

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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.