A CHAMPION YOU ARE


  You tee off at dawn with club in hand,


  Swinging for your target, you take your stand.


  Giving up is not what you do,


  Eighteen holes, whatever it takes to make it 
  Through.

  Walking the course no matter how tired,


  Strength and fight are in you to win this match.


   On to another day, one more tee off,


  Again swinging that club till the end.


  Every sunset under par, Always a champion you are.

                               Keith Garrett

                          A BRIDGE I CROSS



  Far it reaches through my time,



  My travel across it, a neverending journey.



  Obstacles are sometimes in my way,



  I'll hurdle over or push out of my way. 



  Moving along, searching, always searching,



  For just a little more of things not to hurt me.



  Not ever knowing what's ahead,



  Stop I will not until the end.

                 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

                                  7 MINUTES


  We all have 7 minutes before something we must do,



  The same time before work is done and time to go 
  Home.


  7 minutes waiting or 7 minutes up, what be the 
  circumstances,


  7 minutes in the shower, 7 minutes on the phone,



  7 minutes before dinner, another 7 minutes all alone.



  Time is of the essence, time never stands very still,



 7 minutes late just may save your life, right on time, 

  Goodbye.

 In only 7 minutes, from good to bad, your world has 
  Changed,


  Snooze for an extra 7 minutes, it may do you a world
  Of good.


  7 minutes, a long time to suffer, 7 minutes to love and 
  dream.
                                   Keith Garrett

             DESPERADO


  More than one hundred years ago, he lived,


  In a small village, somewhere in Mexico, a boy.


  Poor was his family as each day was a struggle,


  There were those close by, the bad one's who 
  Stole everything.

  A day came when his village was destroyed, family killed,


  Survived did he to one day grow to be a man.


  Revenge would be his only friend, not a bad man was he,


  With pistols at his side he would seek justice.


  They called him desperado, a no good criminal,


  He stole from them who once took everything meaningful.


  His gun did the talking, anger ate at his soul,


  He lived by campfire, ate what he shot or stole,


   Justice was one day his, his reward was always on the run.

                                           Keith Garrett

                   ON THIS, MY MOUNTAIN


  My life spent here for many a year,

  Born in a cabin, my childhood chasing dreams.

  Seasons of many, i watched as the trees grew tall,

  Winter's of snow, Spring's of flowers, Summer's, 
  And Falls.
  Family and friends have passed through time,

  The sky stays the same, the wind does not change.

  Animals come to life as they too grow old,

  The rain falls, the sun rises and sets as it always has.

  On this, my mountain an old man I do stand,

  It does not touch the sky higher, does not lay 
  Down and die.

  Once belonged to another, again too many a man,

  On this, my mountain, I'll forever be part.


                        Keith Garrett 

                                                  AN OLD MAN


  I saw an old man, standing in the sand, with cane 
  In hand, staring out at the horizon,

  I asked of him what his thought's were about,

  He stared at me with a sigh and a smile.

  I'm one hundred and three as I look to the sea,

  I've outlived my wife and family.

  I've had a life, seen many wonderful things,

  Now an old man, old as the trees.

  I say old man! what is it like to be one hundred 
  And three,

  I don't know, I only know what it's like to 

  I asked of him, would you wish to again be a child,

   He replied, my only wish is to again see my wife's smile.

  I asked to him, an old man, what's the greatest thing 
  You have done in such a lifetime,

  His words to me were this, I married a beautiful wife, 
  I walked with her in the sand.

  I saw her smile, and now here I stand.


                  Keith Garrett   

                        A NEW PARADISE


  I sit back and think of the possibility that we
  May start again,

  If not here then is there some other place of peace 
  And happiness?
             
  In the beginning we hear about a garden, it 
  Disappeared from us,

  A new paradise where we can hear the birds sing 
  Without trouble on the horizon.

  Listen to the wind without the painful, tragic, sounds 
  Of sirens,

  A wonderful island, a new world where we are equal 
  In every way.

  Money holds no meaning in this paradise home where 
  Not a soul walks alone,

  Food so plenty, pains of hunger never again in this new 
  Paradise where all are friends.

  Sickness no more, no worries of a cure that were learned 
  About many years before,

  A place that sounds familiar, written in story books, a 
  Fantasy not believed,

  Believe in this as once such a place did exist, a lesson 
  Learned if so happens again.
              Keith Garrett

                     TREASURES OF THE LORD


  Into the darkness I stepped, wandering down a road,

  Left behind the trust and care for those who hurt my
  Soul.
  Alone I've stood on a hill so high, at the edge of the 
  mountain,
  There was nothing for me to see, blinded by what is 
  Humanity.
  Is this place I am in a creation of my own anger and 
  Non-believing,
  Does darkness fade as the sun appears again for a 
  Blind man?
  I've opened these eyes and learned to see his 
  Masterpiece,
  The hills that are alive that rest beneath God's wide 
  Open sky.
  The wind that sings as it blows through the ever so 
  High trees,
  Rain that falls below is a gift to us so that we may 
  Watch Life grow.
  From the sea, to all that we need to be, is for us 
  Because he,
  Only he had a thought, the power to imagine that
  Which we see.
  Treasures of the lord were placed down upon from 
  Heaven,
   Only the greed of a man has stolen that which to him
  belongs not.
  Every time i open my eyes, the treasures of the lord 
  are seen.
  These are a gift, a reality that even the blind may see.


                       Keith Garrett 

                      ANOTHER TIME AND PLACE

   
  I write to you from yesterday, a very long time 
  Ago for you,

  Long before you were born in a town of people 
  and family.

  My family and I were up before the break of dawn, 
  Working,

  Children of  a simple time but at times not so simple 
  You see.

  Horses were a common thing just as your car is in 
  your time,

  Things of your day not dreamed up as of yet, life was 
   hard, also fun.

   Here in yesterday there is sickness that kills many as 
  There is no medicine,

  As I sit here on my farm watcing my wife and kids play, 
  I write this to you.

  When you receive my letter it will be that I and those I 
  Love will be gone now,

  You will have all the things that we here have never seen, 
  Good and bad.

  There are beautiful things and land that will disappear with 
  Time, I can see them,

  I live here in another time and place just as you do, I hope 
   this letter gets to you.
                                         Keith Garrett