I’LL LEAVE THE LIGHT ON

I remember the day when you went away,

Your bags packed, you’ve grown so fast, on your way.

A choice has been made, I’ll stand by your side,

What you believe in your heart is the way you must fight.

Far away the war has not stopped,

I’ll leave the light on until you come home.

I’ve written these letters for fifty years now,

Missing in action is what was said to me about you.

You’re still my love, what has become of you,?

My life is less as you have not come back.

I’ve held on to hope, a prayer every night,

After fifty years the reality of not seeing you hides from my mind.

I’ll leave the light on as I have since the day you drove away,

I’ll leave the light on until my last day.

Keith Garrett

IF I WERE A GHOST

To be not anymore alive, not yet ready to touch the sky,

Wherever my spirit and soul must go, not ready to say goodbye.

If I were a ghost then what might my new world be like, some thoughts,

Faces and those whom I love I could see as they now can not until eternity see me.

Their words for me are heard as they know not that I am still around, I am here,

Not as I once was with body or identity but mind, spirit, and soul are together today.

Without the physical ability as once possessed my challenge of this new existence is now,

Remembering how I could pick things up and communicate seem now taken for granted.

If I were a ghost I would never again feel pain, no food would be needed to sustain,

Some good and some bad, a situation with feelings of sadness,

If I were a ghost I think it would be time to let myself go.

Keith Garrett

1969

I was a child in 1969, I had not a clue of the world,

I knew of certain things, those of which I lived through.

Riding my bike and a deadly Halloween night, that’s right,

I remember all that I did as a kid, a lifetime ago and a family,

Vietnam was a reality and I was protected by my childish world.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid, Clint Eastwood was the man,

Raindrops keep falling on my head, Simon and Garfunkel were grand.

Scooby Doo and all of the colorful cartoons that I knew, I think of you,

Baseball with the miracle Mets, Bill Russell, and the champion Celtics,

Joe Namath with his Guarantee, the Jets beat the Colts, Charles Manson, and history.

The Innocence of the Brady Bunch, walk on the moon, Led Zeppelin and a tune,

1969 was the year when love and innocence were mixed with my day.

Keith Garrett

IF I WASN’T ME

You would not know me, my face, my name a mystery,

The voice that becomes a stranger to you would not be known.

Pass me by without a thought, no emotion or care, a stare,

There would for you be no memory of me, no late night dream.

If I wasn’t me would you wish to see, hear, or smile at me,

Would you be in want of a kiss without pain, a touch with no scare.?

Would a second thought be a possibility if I was a different me,

If I wasn’t me would you not forget me, would I still be a something.

Keith Garrett

IF I WALKED ALONE

Sometimes we wish and find there to be another side of It,

When this world appears to be too much for me to handle

I sometimes wish that there were no people In this land.

If I walked alone at times I might think a dream come true,

No noise would be a pleasure but when would the quiet be a curse.

Walking through the streets beneath the light of the sun,

All alone such a peaceful journey until the day Is done.

Darkness will come, a place not special for me, a night alone an eternity,

If I walked alone everything would be mine to call my own.

Watch what you wish for as there are two sides to every want,

If I walked alone then alone I would be,

No value or meaning without another to see.

Keith Garrett

IF I LEAVE HERE TOMORROW

May I be not always for you to see if I should go away,

Do you think of me now or would I be remembered then.?

Today is a perfect day as the sun watches my traveled road,

My thoughts are many as the wind makes its journey around me.

What might change if tomorrow I say goodbye and disappear,

Each day will awake and each night will surely sleep, this without me.

Will you miss a poem or a smile meant only for you, a kiss once given,

If I leave here tomorrow will you seek me out, search this land.

Hand in hand would you walk along the ocean’s shoreline,

Would you take me back to where your heart rests alone.?

Would you take hold, a woman such as you and not let me go,

If I leave here tomorrow then behind my heart would rest with you.

Keith Garrett

IF I HAVE TO DIE

IT NEEDS TO MATTER

A day will come when this will be, could be a sunrise, a sunset no more,

I can not imagine being gone, leaving this world behind appears unreal.

A life is special, all life as it is to be celebrated, the mark you leave behind,

Regrets, that which never was or could not be accomplished is a thought.

Our purpose for being here as it is only a short time compared to the birth of time,

What is it that’s to be learned from our visit to a land with more mystery always.

Discoveries are made as we search and explore a world so large but appears to get smaller,

What we have learned has helped our survival just as it does damage just the same.

If I have to die it needs to matter, I pray that I will one day be heaven bound,

If I have to go away then before my journey I wish to help another live one more day.

Keith Garrett

IF I EVER GROW OLD

From where my world began throughout my travels to different lands,

The history of my life up until this point has been written and put in a box.

I’m still young, but what is young, a number attached to the years lived here,

It’s a feeling inside, energy that you put out and the wanting of life keeps you young.

If I ever grow old then I’ll have been the lucky one, given a gift of more time to dream,

My book of life will be full of pages that describe who I am and then one day was.

There will be many thoughts and memories of a man’s life, pictures of my existence,

Will I be forever remembered or perhaps thought of by those still living?

Will only the name of me, that which was given be all that rests of my life,

If I ever grow old will I be of good health and mind to sit back in a rocking chair

So that my children or Grandchildren may listen to me as I share my thoughts.

If I ever grow old then to the lord I’ll thank for this book of life full of stories told.

Keith Garrett

IF I COULD DO IT AGAIN

Never thinking about it as a child, growing as a teen not yet,

Is our path chosen, a small part but it is our choices that conquer.

Where we go or end up later in life is a decision from within us,

Hopefully, we get the chance to do what it is we love and are happy.

Oh! if I could do it again I would change many things about myself,

If I could go back in time I would wonder more about the future.

A better attitude could have changed some of my grief, only some,

I may have been in a different place emotionally and the world.

Tried much harder to keep my friends no matter where I went,

Being better to myself would not have changed who I am but saved me.

We can’t go back and do it again, a reason for this, something to learn,

If I could do it again, some things left alone, things are supposed to be as they are.

Keith Garrett

“TRYING TO FIGURE OUT YESTERDAY”

To live In the moment, that’s what we do as we take hold of today,

The past Is no more real, a memory, pictures In an album to recall.

The things’ we’ve lost and discovered In yesterday remain with us,

Wanting Is a feeling, an emotion of this our human nature.

What do we have today that we did not have yesterday,

A little more and a little less fore to figure out, don’t know why.

A waste of time trying to understand what’s been taken from a hand,

Nothing to be gained, only loss, precious time lost In thought.

So to the future, we walk with arms’ opened wide, what’s In sight,

To yesterday a goodbye as we no longer try changing the story.

Trying to figure out yesterday when life leads us the rest of the way.

Keith Garrett