The Singing Carpenter

 

THE SINGING CARPENTER

 

            —for the students of A.C. Davis High School

                And the children of Pastor Everhart

 

    Baptist preacher who lifted my voice

    Pastor John Edward Everhart, 79,

    Yakima, where he sang to us each year

    During Black History Month

    transitioned to the welcoming arms

    of the Lord our God on March 28, 2020.

 

We’d take our classes to the auditorium

Where he was backed by angels—

The Aeolian Choir and he’s talk to us,

Tell us his story, tell us

How it was—he finished

High school in the army—

Chaplain’s assistant, 20 —

Served in Vietnam—we

Never talked about it—and

How it is, too—he’d be preaching

To us, really, Texas born,

Married in North Carolina,

And then, my God! How

He did it, he’d be right there

In between talk and song

Maybe the change in mid-word,

Harmonies—by the time he hit

Liberty it was there,

High as the listening skies,  

The Aeolians would kick in,

Beckoning with their arms,

More than two decades

We did this, there was a piano

Too, where would it come from,

And drums, Full of the faith,

Full of the hope, and we

Wouldn’t get every word

But carried by students next to us

Even in the balcony, where the air

Was thin, everybody singing—

Thy hand true, true to our native land—

He came from Mt. Hope,

He came from Pilgrim’s Rest,

He came to us all of us

Young and young again

In the public city school

Where his children

Would hear their father sing

 

Jim Bodeen

20 November 2020