Over the holidays I went to a number of book-related holiday parties. This is not usual for me. In 2024, I joined six book clubs, only two of which I moved to the “casual” signification, as well as two writing groups. Well, when you do that, apparently there’s a lot more to do in December. Though I am not huge on social gatherings, I was excited about being able to wear more ugly Christmas sweaters and fancy Christmas dresses. And discuss Christmas books. So I showed up to all of the parties available to me. Wait. I might have missed one.

Surprise! Holiday parties thrown by book people for other book people mean that the theme of the party is… books! I can’t even. I was so thrilled to be at no less than three parties where “party” included book trivia, craft tables, and white elephant gift exchanges consisting entirely of books. Craft instead of trying to make polite conversation over a half-glass of punch? Yes! Get competitive about locking down the newest YA book instead of fighting over a humorous phone cover? Yes! Take home goodie bags of book charms and colorful pens instead of leftover cookies? Yes!

Book people: invite me to all your parties, please.

One of these parties was not quite what I just described. Officially, it was the monthly meeting of a literary book club (literary fiction and classics), but it was held at someone’s house instead of the book store, it involved tons of food and beverages, and instead of a book, we were instructed to send a favorite poem to one of the members ahead of time. (This club is full of old traditions.)

When we arrived and had our plate of food, we were instructed to find a seat in the family room in a giant circle of chairs and couches. Someone passed around a stapled booklet of all of our poems. Then we each read aloud our poem in the order it was printed (I happened to be first). After reading, the person would share why they had chosen that poem and the group would discuss it.

It was really nice. It was great to encounter poetry because, well, it doesn’t just come up naturally a whole lot. It was cool to see what people chose and to hear why they chose it. It was fascinating.

Here are the poems we chose:

• “Jabberwocky,” Lewis Caroll
• “In the Well,” Andrew Hudgins
• “The Guest House,” Rumi
• “Death Rides a Rubber-Shod Horse,” Jay Sigmund
• “The Road Not Taken,” Robert Frost
• “Meditation at Lagunitas,” Robert Hass
• “Pity the Nation,” Kahlil Gibran and Lawrence Ferlinghetti
• “The Meaning of Life” and two unnamed poems, Vera Pavlova
• “Allowables,” Nikki Giovanni
• “Notice What This Poem Is Not Doing,” William Stafford
• “Selling Flowers,” Serhiy Zhadan
• “For You My Love,” Jacques Prevert
• “Wild Geese,” Mary Oliver
• “I Don’t Know,” Lisa Hannigan

My faves, for what it’s worth, were “Jabberwocky” (obviously, because it was my pick), “In the Well,” “The Guest House,” “The Meaning of Life” etc., and “Allowables.” Maybe also “Wild Geese” or “Death Rides a Rubber-Shod Horse.” I could keep going, I guess, which makes like more than half of them. I really loved “Allowables” and “The Meaning of Life” series.

If you have an interest in poetry, I would suggest looking up Vera Pavlova. Or just throw a party at your house where you all share poetry and talk kindly and thoughtfully about it instead of playing beer pong.