Banjo

I met Orval and his wife Evelyn in the parking lot of St. Paul's Lutheran church sometime in 1965 or 1966. They were parishioners who stood off to the side after church while everyone was milling around paying social respects to each other. Orval was a short, stocky man who was really quiet. Evelyn, even quieter. They came in their station wagon with squeaky springs loaded with who knows what. I was curious about these people. I was 25 or so and had two small boys; Orval was probably in his 60's or 70's. Eventually we started talking. I pretty much had him to myself. One day he pulls out a scrap of paper and says something like "take a look at this." I took it and read it. It was a poem written in longhand on a scrap of paper. I don't remember which poem it was, but I do remember that it caught my interest because it seemed very heartfelt and a glimpse into who Orval was. I told him I thought it was really cool or something to that effect. He started bringing more poems as the Sundays progressed. Each one I thought was great. I finally asked him how many of these he had written. He said he had a box full of them. I talked him into bringing the box to church one day. What I saw was a massive pile of poems all jammed into this box about the size of an orange crate. This got me thinking. These poems represent a truly remarkable look into the life of this kind, quiet gentleman. Fast forward 50 years. I have been carrying my copy with me and have had a plan to reproduce it so that it could be published. I have been thinking about putting it out there with proceeds benefiting those struggling in life. Numerous attempts at starting this project got sidetracked over the years. Meanwhile scanning and OCR technology has constantly improved. I finally retired a few weeks ago (for about the tenth time) and set for myself a goal to complete this project as a priority. I plan on doing some writing and this seemed like an appropriate project to get started in that direction. Orval passed away on July 19, 1981 at 78 years old. So here we are. I hope you enjoy these poems and the special and intimate insight they provide into quite an extraordinary ordinary person, Orval L. Black. Jim DoubSeattle Washington June 14, 2016