WHAT MY EYES SEE


 My eyes see differently than once a child did see,



 Reality of all that's around, a world of recognized 
 Sounds.


 What my eyes see are not the coloring books and cartoons,



 Not the exploring of our neighborhood and childish ways.



 Not the magical world from a young boy's eyes lost 
 With time,


 What my eyes see are a different kind of beauty and 
 Some insanity.


 This world has changed along with the changes in me,



 What my eyes see are so many things that I never dreamed.


                 Keith Garrett

           THERE ONCE LIVED A MAN


 Many lifetimes ago there lived a youthful man,


 He worked hard, he did all that a man can.


 On his farm, awoke when the rooster said,


 Watched the sunrise, breakfast began his day.


 A simple man who worked hard on his land,


 Crops in the field, a little money in his hand.


 had a wife with a pretty smile, 


 She was there when the day was done,


 As he walked in from the setting sun.


 Supper on the table, tired was this man and wife,


 A warm fire and some conversation till sleep set 
 In their eyes.

 Children were grown, an adventure of their own,


 A mother, a father, in a home now alone.


 There once was a man who loved all that he had.


             Keith Garrett 

                                                                                     
            RUST FROM TIME

 Sometimes to recall childhood days are lost with 
 What life takes away,

 A bicycle of color sits for years until its age is 
 Seen through cobwebs so clear.


 A shed or a box of stored away and at times forgotten
 Treasures are again a thought,


 Going back to a place where once we stood on sidewalks
 Of ghosts, friends we knew.


 Trees grow taller, houses rest where inside we once knew 
 Those with faces and names,


 Hills where we wandered have disappeared with this 
 Changing world.

 Nothing seems to stay the same, faces fade, children we 
 Knew all go away,

 There are those times when I can just stand there and 
 Somewhere in the wind.

 When the night is quiet, there's a fragrance in the air, 
 That feeling of that yesterday.


 Like a cloud or veil as the seasons change and we all go 
 Our separate ways,

 Thoughts change, some memories drift with passing winds.


 Rust from time, if so blessed then may we all play the 
 Memories in our minds

                                                                                   For just a little while longer.
                                 Keith Garrett

          LISTEN TO THE DRUM BEAT


 Thump, thump, hear the sound that makes the world 
 Go around,

 Feel the pounding of its rhythm, the drum beats hard, 
 The heart beats fast.

 Listen to the drum beat that lives inside, listen  
 to music, the drumbeat cries,

 Boom, boom, echoes through the sky, thunder is the  
 Drum, It beats out loud.

 Wait for the rumbling as the shaking earth trembles 
 With an awesome fear,

 Bang, bang, listen as the sleeping child's heart  
 Comes to life in the dark night.


 Bombs and gunfire sing through the war beaten land, 
 Thump, thump,

 The drum beats slow, the drum beats fast, a mothers 
 Terror as her son dies.

 The dancing boxer, hard hit as he is dropped to the  
 Floor, beat of his heart,

 Thump, thump, boom, boom, goes his heart like 
 The drumbeat so slow.

 Listen to the drumbeat, to the sound of wandering feet, 
 Like a drum,

 A first breath of life, a slower and slower beat of the 
 Fading, going away.
                                   Keith Garrett 

          GOLDEN HAIRED LITTLE GIRL


 She was born In nineteen twenty eight, a star 
 She would soon be,

 This golden haired little girl with a pout that 
 Could melt anyone's heart.

 She would sing and dance, shaking her golden curls  
 All about,

 A beautiful little child, a star growing up back 
 In the thirties.

 There has never been a child star like her and 
 Never will be again,

 Her smile would light up any room, she lived In a  
 Time of depression.

 World war two was closing In but her movies could
 Take away the struggles

 Of everyone's pain from those days, you could go away, 
 If only for a moment.

 What a life for a girl named Shirley, so young when 
 The whole world knew her,

 In a time of great entertainers, a changing world, 
 Shirley Temple was around.

 She grew up to be a woman but the little girl would 
 Go on to live forever,

 Her movies will never go away so she will live In our 
 Hearts always.

 Here's to you golden haired little girl, In heaven  
 You'll be again that little girl.


                   Keith  Garrett                                   

            FROM 18 UNTIL THIS DAY


 Much younger was I back when the sun rose much 
 Higher in the sky,

 Still but a teenager as once a thought that I might 
 Have been a man.

 When I was eighteen I was going to the beach, 
 Dreaming about life ahead,

 Long blonde hair and searching for that always 
 Wanted summer tan.

 The sun begins to move west and I go beyond those 
 Teen years,

 I follow the sun, it looks down upon me each morning 
 Then I chase it.

 I walk the road, I live my life, the sun travels  
 Further than I can run,      

 The  more I follow then the older I seem, I have  
 Dreamed, no more eighteen.

 I am older than some friends once were, older than a
 Father gone far away,

 From 18 until this day I have changed in different ways, 
 The sun now half way.

               Keith Garrett                          

                                                                                        
               A PICTURE OF YOU


 Plenty of times I saw you, watched as you changed,


 A portrait of a baby, many years ago as time has 
 Aged it.

 As a child, you appeared a certain way, young at play.


 From twelve to seventeen, a face that went different 
 Ways,

 Twenty was a special year, your first child, a boy 
 Named Gary.

 Seven children as the years went by, your picture 
 Changed,

 Beyond eighteen or twenty five, seasons changed in 
 Your eyes.

 Mom! I miss you, I think I can hear you when I sleep 
 In the night,

 A picture of you rests in my sight, a picture of you 
 In a book that I write.

                  Keith Garrett

              CAN YOU HEAR ME LORD?


 Tears running down my face, this face created 
 By you,

 Lie do I when to those I say there's no pain, I cry.


 It Is you O' Lord who sees me as sitting here I 
 search,

 Within myself the answers are not found, am I a 
 Good man?

 Help me, rid me of this sorrow eating away at my 
 Crying heart,

 Listen to me, can you hear me Lord, can you hear 
 My thoughts?

 Are you near Lord, are you with me as I ask of you 
 To love me,

 Comfort this foolish, pain soaked man of a thousand 
 Tears.

 Let me hear of a song that says love still lives 
 In our world,

 Give me something to hold On to as I dream and breathe.


 Can you hear me Lord, will you hear me tonight,


 As I drift off to sleep will you sit with me, will you 
 Say goodnight?

                 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 be me.


 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   

            AMONGST THE AUTUMN TREES



 Into the shadows, underneath the shaded trees,


 Footsteps on a carpet of leaves falling like rain.


 Glance do I at what's above, flashes of sunlight,


 Gleaming through living statues of brilliant color.


 A gentle breeze whispers past through the branches,


 Ornaments let go of the arms that hold them floating


 quietly and gently to the ground.


 Further into the Autumn day I venture,


 All is calm with nature as it invites me to 
 Share the day.

 Amongst the Autumn trees lies much more than one 
 Dares to dream,

 A never ending cycle of life that can't always be seen.

                           Keith Garrett