Section 3: Here’s Our Night

“Little Big Band” by Connor Edwards

A response to the poem “Ol’ Bunk’s Band”

Here’s the night The chill, the wind, the rain

Drizzling, ring out, ring out! The ring of cymbals freshly set

Clink, clink! The patrons glasses, the sharp mellow glasses

Present and then gone, a light homely tone

Dim, dim! The lights overhead shining down, glaring like the eyes of the viewers

Here’s the night!

One, Two! The count-off begins!

Thumping bass, low tones washing beneath Screaming brass

Breaking through, weaving by mumbling crowds Ring, Sing, Sign, Line, Lines, Lines felt in the depths of our instruments Running deep, playing out, This is us, here’s our night

Response to Valentine by Dhanika Therese Taruc

Response to Fly Me to the Moon, Bart Howard by Nate Dampier

Let me stay right here on earth, my feet planted firm in the dirt. No rocket ships, no lunar dreams, just the familiar sound of quiet things

No weightlessness, no endless space, just the comfort of a familiar place No distant star, no cosmic view, just the simplicity of life anew

The world so vast and full of wonder, why venture to a distant yonder? Let me stay grounded in my home, where I can breathe and freely roam

“Double Time” by Connor Edwards

A response to Touching the Past

Millikin University, 2020, Here was a time changing beneath me, Old enough to grasp the future,

Had the world allowed I never knew Where my road headed, Sometimes I don’t now.

The current moving in double time, Carrying the world faster than I could keep up. Sinking below the waves of opportunity

I reminisce on days before me Unknowing of how few have past, Time seemed much longer then.

The current ebbs and flows beneath me, Changing tides carry forward with or without me, Moving on with the double time

“To Love and Lose” by

Connor Edwards

A response to Autumn Leaves, Joseph Kosma

Loss, A constant for us all.

Love, To some the best thing to find The leaves of Autumn fall every year, A constant all on their own Swathes of color, Painting the ground like a canvas.

Loss, Better to be held as memories, than left like the leaves of fall.

Love, Better to have been had and then lost, Than never felt at all

Response to My Way by Dhanika Therese Taruc

Response by Nate Dampier

Lights shine bright, In the evening sky, Crowds of people, You in my arms, all I need, Just you and me, My darling Kansas city, I took her with me, And there we met So many, the night, still young She spoke through my tongue But all good things must come to an end, Let's go home, So I'll leave you to Sleep, And dream of the sweet seductive Summers season, Just you and Me

Response to At the Five Spot

by Taiylor and Dhanika