Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,
Yesterday I read a version of this new poem at a Vigil for the Shooting Victims in Orlando.
Fourteen Times
Do you remember when iconic men fell from our sight?
Lone gunmen snuffed out our hopes,
Silenced our heroes,
Darkened our days, extended our nights.
We all felt those gunshots,
Heard their echoes
Resound in our public squares,
In our Mississippi driveways,
In our Manhattan ballrooms,
And in our marble city halls,
Now monuments to those we have lost.
The gunshot echoes becoming the soundtrack of an era of loss.
The decades pass, and the loss,
No longer merely symbolic, has now been socialized.
It has spread to elementary schools,
High schools, and universities.
It has spread to movie theaters,
To churches, to offices, to nightclubs.
The gunshot echoes have become staccato:
A desolate tune.
Fourteen times our consoler in chief,
his face pained, his hair ashen,
has addressed the nation.
Fourteen times.
The child asks if anyone important has died,
And the mother explains that everyone is important,
Even if none of them this time is famous.
We are made important by our bravery;
We are made important by our willingness to stand up
And to stand out;
We are made important by the joy we give
And the joy we receive;
We are made important by our solidarity,
By our resolve, and our community.
Unwilling to forget those whom we do not know, but whom we love,
Today we open our arms and take heed of our hearts,
Stretched and enlarged by mournful, practiced sympathy.
I would love not to have to write any more such poems as Poet Laureate of Davis.
Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on almost none of the topics raised above. Instead, expect questions on angry birds and odd birds, weddings, mirrors, the U.N., superheroes, successful mixes, tablets, fish, Macklemore, Nigel Smith, Canadians who worked in America, Steinbeck, delicacies that were finally exported to Europe in the 1930s, Clinton vs. Trump, mutual claims, Ireland, rockets, HBCUs, composers, Hawaii, schemes that go awry on stage, Dracula, definitely The Beatles, across the pond, modern conservatism, people with unique names, coloring, German luxuries, poll numbers, sardonic masks, democracy, and Shakespeare.
I hope you can join us this evening. We need to reaffirm our spirit of community and laughter at a time like this.
Your Quizmaster
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Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:
- Mottos and Slogans. Who used the commercial slogan “So easy a caveman could do it”?
- Internet Culture. The second most-popular website in the world is the third most-popular website in the U.S., after Facebook. What is the second most-popular website in the world?
- Newspaper Headlines. Today Governor Rick Scott declared a state of emergency because of oncoming tropical storm Colin. Of what state is Scott governor?
P.S. This coming Thursday night is Poetry Night, and we are featuring multi-award-winning science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson. He’s one of the biggest names in town, and this coming Thursday night at 8 at the Natsoulas Gallery, you can find out why.