19941 FERNGLEN DRIVE

Thinking back to those hot Summers between nineteen seventy two

And nineteen seventy seven in Yorba Linda, I see from my mind great times.

Parents at work just as were most every house when I was a kid,

My stepsisters Barbara and Denise would stay with us for the Summer.

Mornings were always good as we would sleep in if we wanted, I recall,

There we were, nine kids in the house running crazy, laughing, maybe fighting.

Everyone doing different things, of course, we had better have cleaning done,

We spent days swimming in the pool, the girls, my sisters Cheryl, Kathy, and Tammy

Were doing their own things, Kathy and Barbara probably hiding smoking cigarettes.

I use to hide a tape recorder under Kathy’s bed until they left and then listen for facts,

They would say all sorts of things, blackmail, something to hold over their heads.

Tammy was and still is the youngest, for being so young she learned to be wild,

She had no choice but to learn to fight back with eight others picking on her.

Gary was the oldest and as my parents said! he was in charge and supposed to watch us,

Well? he gave us lots of advice to get ourselves into trouble, many of his ideas.

He was my older brother and although we would fight at times if anyone bothered

Me he was around to kick their ass because that’s the way he was and family should be.

He went to Bernardo, and Esperanza high school, ran track and partied,

Fernglen drive was a street I loved living on and sure will always remember.

My brother Leon liked to hang out with his best friend Tony Ingalls, they were pals,

Leon at that time thought Gary was the greatest, he would try hanging around him.

My sister Valerie was the second youngest whom to me was much different than the rest,

She liked swimming and like everyone else played outside, she didn’t seem as loud.

She played hide and seek and other games in the dark of night with the rest of us,

Valerie sure didn’t find trouble the way some of us did, a good person with the same smile to this say.

We were kids, a family living in Yorba Linda back in the seventies on Fernglen Drive,

Messing around on the weekends, out in the hills before they were destroyed by greed.

Imaginations used before so much technology took away the dreaming minds of a child,

Active back in those days were children, chasing the sun till the day was done, after dark.

Whatever we believe, with our parents if to this day we disagree or did not see eye to eye,

I think we all owe them a world of thanks for the lives we had back then even with childhood scars.

Just as they could never be perfect it stands that for certain neither were we, remember a time,

Why is it that we can only go back, visit in our minds our yesterday, why can’t we walk backward.

A reason from god, one of his great mysteries, perhaps we were supposed to have understood then,

While we were running and playing as children we weren’t looking for the future or thinking we

We were going to lose the days as we now stand in the future and those days lost are in the past.

Like leaves we are scattered in the wind, we travel a road we choose, distance in miles or in thought,

Always in my thinking mind, my family close by or far away, I wait and watch to see them another day.

Keith Garrett

FAVORS IN THREES

How is it possible to change the world,

Can one man get it started, where to begin.?

Do a favor of unselfishness and ask that in return

This person do three favors,

Two more favors of you must be accomplished to start.

It is that someone first did a kindness for you,

They then asked of you to do these three things.

Favors of three may be quite a sacrifice indeed,

A price this may be that you pay in many a way.

A person, just one to take a chance is possible,

If each that have been given this gift does in return

Pass it on then it will never stop.

The world would be as one family, in other words,

A PERFECT WORLD.

Keith Garrett

FIGHTER PILOTS

They soar to the sky, sound of engines screaming,

Above them the great beyond, below, land and sea.

Patrolling the skies, keeping the enemy far away,

Ready for the fight, battle if they must.

Danger is anywhere, men who will give their lives,

These are the fighter pilots born to fly.

Look up high and see as the jet wash trails go by,

Faster than can be imagined, bravery is alive.

Fully armed when duty calls them to the sky,

Fighter pilots defend, they travel far and wide.

Wherever they are, wherever they may go,

They wear a uniform representing the American soul.

Keith Garrett

FACES IN THE WATER

By myself as I am sitting beneath the warm, rising sun,

There exists a slight, cool, morning breeze around me.

Watch I do as the tall, dancing, trees stand high above,

Rays from the sunshine through the branches of leaves.

What surrounds me this day is taken for granted beauty,

The quiet is an always wanted gift that will never go away.

The calm pond water rests around me while I think and dream,

When I look down to find my reflection I see not me but that of other days.

My thoughts take me to yesterday, far, far, away as if it were today,

The water is quite still now like clear, shiny, glass, I drift off like a dream.

Faces in the water, clearly I can see with memories faces in the water,

Days of old, friends scattered with time are seen floating in the sun.

Keith Garrett

FACES OF CLOWNS

Disguises are worn, they hide a world of fear,

Hidden with colors of false smiles or frozen frowns.

We laugh and we dance, juggle our thoughts and emotions,

Our world Is a cage, a circus of freaks and entertainment.

We challenge our own mortality, on a high wire we dance,

Shot through a cannon to where we may land, life In hand.

Faces of clowns, dressed In costumes they seem secure,

Acts put on for children, are they not the young that have tears.

We dress in our own costumes, put on a face that we choose,

Is what appears real only a magicians magic, a trick of sorts.

Whatever expression we wear, whatever makeup we’re made of,

Faces of clowns, we all wear faces of clowns.

Keith Garrett

EXPRESSIONS

There are those with looks of a fear unexplained,

Scared of something, the world does not understand.

Laughing in the park, a man and woman,

Happy are their faces as seen from the street.

Crying all alone under a tree, tears of life,

Sadness spills out of a heart so broken.

Anger sits in the soul of a human being with hurt,

Upset at the loss of loves rejection.

Many faces of this life worn, expressions learned,

Expressions so true, those of me, those of you.

Keith Garrett

ENTER HIS KINGDOM

Some have said that everyone is born with a sentence of death,

Life after, to live in eternity is said to be of the greatest peace.

There is a purpose for our lives here on this earth,

Lessons to understand, too feel and experience all emotions.

The greatest joy and gift that one may receive can only be a dream

As we live and breathe here in this world,

The thought of death, to die appears as something so horrible.

Life is a precious mystery that we all are given by God,

We are blessed with the chance and knowing that one day

When our time is here done that we will enter his kingdom.

Sin will be no more, pain, suffering, and hatred will die,

Everlasting love and beauty will be ours,

Enter his kingdom and live forever.

Keith Garrett

EVERYTHING IS ON ITS WAY

TO SOMEWHERE

We’re all connected from the beginning of time,

No matter where we are or where we are headed.

From the first sign of DNA, we have a link to each other,

It has been discovered that in some way we are all related.

Everything is on its way to somewhere while the earth keeps spinning,

Think about it, a bite of an apple eaten and swallowed, an ongoing voyage.

From a tree planted from seed, it then grows with time as the apple forms,

The flowing river makes its way to the ocean while the ocean carry’s it away.

Everything is in constant movement or aging as it makes its journey to other places,

The wind, the falling leaves continue on even though things disappear they are never gone.

Everything is on its way to somewhere, living or not, to somewhere, constant energy.

Keith Garrett

EVERYTHING COMES WITH A PRICE

Not only do we pay to live in every way but also with what we say,

To eat, have water, we must pay with a coin, a dollar hard earned.

The air we breathe, even dirt has a price on It, once something free,

Today, the time has come when nothing Is free, greed, pay or have nothing.

Love has Its own special price, much work and sacrifice Is most needed,

It too can be lost If not a daily concern, friendship has value, don’t take for granted.

When doing the right thing then there is also a price to be paid in another way,

Standing up for that which we believe In, too speaking out loud has a big price.

Marching against, protesting, going against the law, right or wrong has Its price,

Everything comes with a price, growing old If ever so lucky comes with a trade,

One day we give our lives to god, the thanks for a life, with our souls we pay.

Keith Garrett

ECHOES FROM THE MOUNTAIN

From long ago, generation to generation stories told,

Fables and tales passed on, changing as they grow.

Beyond many Winters and long Summers, songs In the wind,

The lives of families whispered throughout a mountains time.

How long this mountain has stood can never be realized with eyes,

Echoes from the mountain, stories that drift with the passing sky.

The blowing wind, how many times has It passed across the mountain top,

What words speak from the wind, how many have the wind touched or moved?

Echoes from the mountain, voices of those who have forever passed through.

Keith Garrett