You can use something like Calendars (Readdle's free version of Calendars 5) strictly for the widget. Yes, it's dumb to have to add an entire app just for the widget, but it does work. Link it to your calendar, throw the app into a "not used" folder, turn off all notifications from it so you're not double notified, and just use the widget.
Or, as mentioned, switch calendar apps entirely. It's actually kind of surprising to me how poorly laid out the current incarnation of Apple's calendar app really is.