Upon seeing the name of the event "Another Reason I Don't Keep a Gun in the House and Other Musings," there might be a bit of shock. However, this title is not the sign of a homicidal maniac, it is actually the title of music professor Dr. Christopher Goeke's upcoming faculty recital at the River Campus.

"Another Reason I Don't Keep a Gun in the House" comes from a poem by Billy Collins, former Poet Laureate of the United States, who wrote a collection of poems that deal with different frustrations in life and all have some sort of reasoning as to "why they don't keep a gun in the house."

The particular poem by Collins that Goeke took the title from is about a person whose neighbor's dog keeps barking all of the time. Goeke said that he first heard Collins perform his poetry on the longtime running National Public Radio show "A Prairie Home Companion," and he just loved the poetry. In Goeke's performance, the poetry by Collins has been put to music by composer Tom Cipullo. Goeke said he was very impressed by Cipullo and plans to try to find more music by him.

Goeke began hunting through bookstores for more of Collins' poetry and thought that he could put the words to music. However, Goeke said that he wasn't the first person to have this idea about the poetry since he heard another professional perform the poetry set to music at a conference, so he began to think about building a recital around the theme of "not keeping a gun in the house."

"It just struck me," Goeke said.

The recital will have 15 songs in total, which is a normal length for a recital, according to Goeke, who is a tenor performer. The songs all tend to fall in a certain theme, which essentially shows the tragedy and comedy in life.

"There is a lot of tragedy in our lives, and you can realize that these people are going through the same things we do," Goeke said, discussing the composers and lyricists for the music he is performing.

Goeke said that sometimes things get under a person's skin, and you might feel like "going postal," and these songs "are tiny examples of things that really drive you crazy."

Goeke also is including pieces by Franz Schubert, George Frideric Handel and Igor Stravinsky.

"The last set I'm going to do is also unusual," Goeke said, who is including three cabaret songs.

According to Goeke, cabaret songs come from a feeling of unrest, and they generally have a political or social commentary. He also said that most of the time the songs might appear much more fun and lighthearted, but when looking at the lyrics, a person can really see the meaning in the songs. One of the cabaret songs is in German and two are in French, but his entire performance includes Italian and English as well.

Collaborative pianist Matt Yount will perform with Goeke. Yount began practicing with Goeke as far back as the middle of August.

"He's the lead performer, and I'm the supporting cast," Yount said.

Goeke and Yount's performance is at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 10 at the River Campus. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased at the River Campus box office or at rivercampusevents.com.