My Pap, Ivan P. Ankeny

In the studio quietly working away

Without a knock or a rap

I’m taken from my thoughts

By the shadow of my Pap

Here to greet me with a smile so true

That it showed on his face right thru to his soul

Curiously he watched, before he would say

"Hey there George, watcha working on today"

Truly concerned about how things were

Absorbing life’s blessings, he would observe

It was not only I that he concerned about

But everyone he met as he meandered about

While at work he greeted everyone he met

With clean shaven smile and a crooked hat

When the day’s duties were done

The same smile was there just as warm as the sun

Minus the layer of a long day’s dirt

With his hair combed back, and tucked in shirt

Glad to see you, no matter who you were

Ready with a story to tell or recite

Enough to last into many a night

And the perfect one he would say

When he talked to you on any given day

It was not where you’ve been, or the church where you prayed

It was God in your soul that would make his day

If he did not see this glorious sight

He’d share his path and how God gave him light

And he’d share this with you with all of his might

Because he hopes to see us all again

In his Heavenly home, just around the bend

So rejoice if you know where to meet him someday!

For he lived as an example to help show us the way

 

Pap, you are missed more than can be explained, and our thoughts are of you each and everyday.