A STRANGER


  Cobwebs and tumbleweeds, traces of life and the past,


  A forgotten road not so often traveled, not anymore.


  Where do they go, the ones we once knew and walked with,


 More and more they become ghosts, faded faces from 
 Yesterday.

 Time slips away slowly into my tomorrow where my memories 
 Are found,

  Friends are now strangers, strangers are now my friends.


 There once lived a woman whom i did not know. she lived her 
  Life without me,

  In her there was not a thought of me, for me she had no 
  Meaning.

   This stranger that I had not met would someday be the love a 
  Man could not forget,

  Like the wind forever blowing, she has drifted, a stranger I
  Never knew,

  Where did you go! where did you go! a stranger I love, a 
  Woman I'll never know.
                 Keith Garrett

                       A SMALL HOUSE


  Along the banks of a river, is home,


  Apple trees and hills of grass live here.


  A small house for a family of people,


  Food on the table and a fire burning warm.


  Sitting on the porch, a fiddle in hand I am,


 A pipe to smoke is an evening kind of thing.


  Horses are down for the night, children in our sight,


  Nineteenth century life is quite a fight.


  A small house is all we need to believe,


  Hopes and dreams are seen as far as our eyes can see.

            Keith Garrett

           BEFORE AND AFTER

  There was a time when I was not here,



  No thoughts, no name or Identity were mine.



  I had no pain or sorrow, not a thing for me to know,



  Where was I before I became me, somewhere waiting?



  A time will come when I am no longer here, will I have 
  Thoughts?


 A name remembered, my Identity will not be this body 
 Or mind,


  Again there will be no pain or sorrow, I will be somewhere 
  Else,


  Before and after, heaven bound, where was I before my 
  First sound?

                                             Keith Garrett

                    A WAND OF MAGIC

  In hand, a wand would make me a magic man,


  Not even a word and crime would disappear.


  I could stop time, rid the world of trash or pollution,


  Take away the sick waters of rivers and oceans.


  Murder on our land would be stopped with a hand,


  The ill would be no more, cancer but a memory.


  I could run fast or jump high,


  A tear would be one less for all of mankind.


  The cruel slaughter of creatures in the world,


  With a wave from my hand, this would end.


  A wand of magic need not be that of evil,


  For love and good, the hand that holds this wand.


  A wand of magic is not to be real,


 We can wish, hope, and pray, that it all goes away.

               Keith Garrett                                                     

                  A WAND OF MAGIC

  In hand, a wand would make me a magic man,


  Not even a word and crime would disappear.


  I could stop time, rid the world of trash or pollution,


  Take away the sick waters of rivers and oceans.


  Murder on our land would be stopped with a hand,


  The ill would be no more, cancer but a memory.


  I could run fast or jump high,


  A tear would be one less for all of mankind.


  The cruel slaughter of creatures in the world,


  With a wave from my hand, this would end.


  A wand of magic need not be that of evil,


 For love and good, the hand that holds this wand.


  A wand of magic is not to be real,


 We can wish, hope, and pray, that it all goes away.

               Keith Garrett                                                     

                     

                                  HER SOUL,

                       A THOUSAND YEARS OLD.


  Her face, a look that says she comes from a different place,


  A smile that lights up within a darkness, so young but old.


  She sings out with an operatic sound, mesmerizing to the ear,


  Into a state of wonder that will take you away, watch her eyes.  


  Appears does she as a little girl, maybe from a long ago world,


  Sings as if she has lived lifetimes, her voice echoes with years,


  It is that her soul could be that of a thousand years old.

                                              Keith Garrett


                                                     

                              PIECES OF TIME


  Our time as humans, animals, anything living loses time,


  All created things age with time, their are many quotes 
  About time.

 Time does get older but never does it go away, never backwards,


  A clock, a watch, the ancient sun dial that watched our day pass,


 An hourglass of sand, those which remind us always of  our time.


  Pieces of time, a memory thought of with long lost friends, 
  Older now,

  Pictures on a mantle, photographs and picture albums, dust coverd.


  Antiques, old relics lost with time, discovered within aging places, 


  Pieces of time, an old remembered house, friends that rest inside.

                                         Keith Garrett

                      QUIET DAY IN NOVEMBER


  Each November there is a tradition, a feast for a day,


  Appreciate and be thankful for what you think you don't 
  Have.
 
  So many lessons we have never learned in a country of anger,


  A fast paced life as we pass one another by, a face seen, a 
  Name not known.

  When will we stand together as they did so long ago in   
  Sixteen twenty one,

  Put all differences aside, racism, the color of skin, and all   
  Those crazy protests.

  Let's make it a quiet day in November, rest, be with your 
  Families, don't take for granted,

  Thanksgiving is easier, football games and a beer or possibly 
  A few drinks to think over.

  Enjoy your day as some can not have, eat more than you need

  As others don't have,

  A day of health and happiness is more than a material thing

  Wished upon to often.

  So let's have a quiet day in November, have some peace for 

  Just a while, anyway,

  The Autumn leaves are falling, just as they did hundreds of

  Years ago on a Fall day.   Keith Garrett