THE WAY IT IS

The leaves, they fall from the standing trees,

Birds In the sky fly, short are their lives.

A boy and girl holding hands In the dark,

An Image In time as they become man and woman.

Seasons of four change through the year,

Love has a season, sometimes a lifetime.

The nights are always dark, a still quiet,

Just as the day Is light, the world is alive.

Summers with friends often come to their end,

Time marches on, that’s the way It Is.

Fly away little bird, animals run till they’re done,

A son, a daughter go away with the setting sun.

The way It Is, just the way It Is,

We’re born to die, someday to touch the sky.

Keith Garrett

THE UNSEEN MONSTER

It has life, it grows and never dies,

Relentless and appears very angry.

No fear does it possess but fear it gives,

There is no discrimination as it devours life.

Heartless without emotion as it travels,

It has a name as it has many nicknames.

Mankind does not call it friend as it has only one love,the face of death,

It can not be reasoned with, it will fight just as you must fight.

It conquers many battles, many will surrender,

The unseen monster has no conscience

But a body and strength like no other.

Its given name is the devils’ friend,

It calls itself only “CANCER”.

Keith Garrett

TWO ON A SWING

Here we are in the late afternoon, the sun going down,

I came by your house to say hello, it’s been some time.

I can’t believe it’s almost Summer can you,?

I see you still have that porch swing your dad put up.

How has everything been going for you since I’ve been gone,?

I’m glad, I can only stay for a while, you do understand.

Remember the days when we would just talk and sit on your swing,

The weekends in the Summer sun, laughing and not a worry to be found.

We were just kids, young, times like those are memories of fun,

I could see your tears when I had to leave this place.

I’m in your heart as you’ll forever be in mine,

Let’s just sit here for a while until the sun fades,

I’ll never go away, remember two on a swing in those Summer days.

Keith Garrett

WHAT IF YOU NEVER?

The wind on your face, Never before felt, what a fate,

Grass beneath your feet, so sweet, would you never meet?

Rain coming down, listen to its sound, never will you touch,

If you never smelled a flower, climbed a tree, kissed your mother.

What if you never danced with a girl, could never walk down the road,

Never run with your friends, What if you lived, what if you never did live?

Keith Garrett

THE MIGHTY SEQUOIA

How beautiful a tree that stands what seems like forever,

Some are more than three hundred feet high touching the sky.

Can you just imagine the time these trees have spent watching clouds pass by,

They have been standing strong while lifetimes have come and gone.

The mighty Sequoia, there is one that lives for thirty five hundred years,

Imagine this, born to the world as It began Its growth before the life of Jesus Christ.

This mighty tree still stands two thousand years after the death of quite a man,

It Is the mighty Sequoia, King of trees, will stand forever as long as the earth will be.

Keith Garrett

THE ICE CREAM MAN

On a hot, sunny, day travel through your neighborhood I do,

Driving My white truck blasting a tune, a quarter will get it for you.

The music is my warning, like a drug it turns children into addicts,

They run screaming across their yards, someone please give me some money.

Chase me they do, watch them run under the Summer sun,

Give up they will not, waiving treasure from their hands for a treat.

I am the ice cream man, listen to my music and for a price an ice cream in hand,

Snow cones, popsicles, fudge bars, and more, my little truck is an ice store,

Listen for the music, it will make your mind spin, I’m the ice cream man so dig in.

Keith Garrett

THE HEART OF A POET

One whom dreams, through feelings Inside that make their way to the surface,

Thinking, always thinking about that which lives around us, possibilities of hope.

From the heart of a poet comes neverending thoughts and wishes spilled out,

With the skill and gift given to write from the heart, a pen moves with the hand.

The writing never has to stop as there are thoughts and scenes seen from a mind that dreams,

The heart of a poet lives In many a person and there are those who don’t yet see.

From me to you and every heart that has many stories to tell, from the heart of a poet.

Keith Garrett

THE FLAG STILL WAVES

IS IT THE SAME?

They fought to a bloody end back when there was a revolution,

Their fight for freedom was long as today they would ask what’s wrong.

Nothing was ever perfect from then till now and it won’t ever be,

I don’t believe the flag is waved today as it once was in a yesterday.

The stars and stripes are still in the same place but does it mean anything,?

Think of seventeen seventy six before there was an American flag.

There are many more today, the flag still waves, is it the same,?

Flags blow in the wind all over the world, colorful are they, what do they say.e

Competition and fighting over land has never changed, today power and money are the names,

It sure is scary that men of many emotions are in control of mass weaponry of nuclear power.

Money exchanging hands will probably never go away, to the highest bidder bombs make their way,

The flag still waves, it’s not the same, let’s pray that the world is saved,

Those men from long ago, don’t let their fight and sacrifice go in vain.

Keith Garrett

THE BEST SUMMER OF MY LIFE

Think far back or just a few years if there was a season remembered,

I was a child when those first Summers played, a time not in my mind.

Places that I have lived have Summers that belong to them, what is remembered,

There have been many seasons of the heated time, some of the best in my life,

Do you remember a house and city you may have lived in as a child or teen,

Friends, running with the wind, full of energy as the days seemed to never end.

The best Summer of my life, the first one that has never been recalled to this day,

The best Summer of my life was the last Summer as a young boy with my dad.

When you are young it is that when school is out every Summer will be the best,

For me, there was a great place, some of the best Summers of my life, Yorba Linda,

I was ten when I moved there and for all those kids who did, do you remember the magic.?

The best Summer of my life is every Summer I awake to from beginning to end.

Keith Garrett

THE ANSWERS I HAVE

Already have I the answers to the questions I’ll ask,

Not knowing why I ask of things already known by me.

Mistakes are made by which lessons are learned,

To little, too late or perhaps a chance for this man.

A bad choice is made, learn what can be learned,

The answers I have to my questions of this wrong I do.

Think before I act, a lesson so simple without thought,

Think before I speak and avoid my loss.

Keith Garrett