Welcome to Poetically Yours. Poetically Yours showcases poems by northern Illinois poets. This week’s poet is Karen Fullett-Christensen.
Fullett-Christensen was born and raised on the north side of Chicago, in the Albany Park and Budlong Woods neighborhoods. She is a 1968 graduate of Mather High School (Chicago), and a 1972 graduate of Northern Illinois University (DeKalb). She briefly attended graduate school at Governors State University. She has resided in several of Chicago’s south and west suburbs, and in Missoula, Montana.
With a bachelor’s degree in social sciences, Fullett-Christensen has held a variety of jobs: secretary, bookkeeper, teacher, real estate agent, and urban planner. Upon retirement in 2012 from the City of Aurora, Fullett-Christensen was recognized as the Kane County Planner of the Year. In January 2020, Fullett-Christensen was named as the City of Aurora’s first Poet Laureate.
From 2013 through 2025, she co-hosted A-Town Poetics, a monthly gathering for local writers. Writing since high school, she has self-published nearly 40 manuscripts. Her poems and creative non-fiction have appeared in a variety of print and online publications and are available at no cost to anyone who requests copies.
In addition to poetry, music is of great importance to Fullett-Christensen. She has been a member of the Fox Valley Festival Chorus for nearly 20 years, a group that features semi-annual local concerts and has performed in New York City, Cleveland, Italy, Canada, and France. Here's her poem "Sly Seducer."
We had happily stored heavy old boots
rearranged closets for spring attire
then the snow began falling
covered shy crocus who scarcely had shown
their pale purple blooms
the grass which had cautiously started to green
laid its fronds down, back to sad slumber
but then, as if to counter despondence
the sun peeked just slightly
from its lair behind clouds
one last glint of sparkle on solid crusts
a few icy crystals on drooping brown leaves
that still clung to bushes
tree branches bravely carried the weight
of this last-ditch attempt
to remind us that March
is the slyest of all:
the seducer who teases us
out from despair
