I will never forget the respect I would feel,
As I watched him for hours, making magic from steel.
He was hard but softhearted, always wanting to give,
As he worked I would listen, and his life he’d relive.

He would talk of the old times back so long ago,
As I listened intently, for I wanted to know.
The things he had been through, and the things he would feel,
And his words as he spoke, made it all seem so real.

Then he took an old piece of scrap metal you see,
And he chucked it up tight while he was talking to me.
Then he turned on his lathe and away layers he peeled,
And from that scrap metal, great things he’d reveal.

I watched close as he peeled each thin layer away,
He’d peek over his glasses and to me he would say.
“I think this piece of metal has something to hide,
And I’m going to find out what is hidden inside”

He kept on turning that piece of brass down,
And then he smiled and said "look what I found".
I looked over his shoulder and then I could see,
that he had been making a brass hammer for me.

And when he had finished his creation so new,
I said, “I wish I could make things the way that you do”
He said “ I didn’t make it, it was there all along,
I just took off the metal that didn't belong.

Hank is now gone, but I can look back and see,
Somehow he revealed things that were hidden in me.
He taught me something and I now say with pride,
That the mark of a man, is the heart that’s inside.


Jack Roberts – September 2002