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

I AM SEVEN

I chase butterflies and try to get moths from vines,

Model airplanes are a hobby done with my dad,

A vegetable garden out back, chasing the Ice cream man.

Coloring books and cartoons on a Saturday morning is fine,

A favorite cereal, lucky charms, and Frostio’s, a pop tart in my mind.

Watching the Little Rascals, the three stooges, other favorite shows,

Toaster pizzas and a glass of milk on a T.V. tray on a late Summer day.

Riding my bike, through sprinklers we ran in the sun, a day for fun,

I am seven as I would someday remember, walking in the breeze, climbing trees.

I go to school, walk as I dream, I am a child of nineteen sixty nine, I am me,

I run and play at recess with special friends whom I will soon never see again.

My world is different when I am seven, no worries of the future, only a child’s day,

There is a magical side to my life today, what will I remember of my time in a place.

Keith Garrett

LONG AFTER I GO

The world keeps turning, life marches on,

The sun will shine, the wind will blow.

Day will become night as in turn, night will become day,

Watch as the rain falls, the snow melts away.

Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall, year after year,

Babies will be born, they’ll grow to disappear.

Long after I go who will remember me,

Long after I go, these things will still be.

Keith Garrett

“BUTTERFLY”

I can see in your eyes, oh! Butterfly, how is it you fly,

Colors of bright fly in the sky, Spring is your moment,

The warm season sets you free, you belong to no one.

Butterfly in the sky, you travel a great distance, floating,

Do you know who I am as you drift on by, peering into my eyes,

You are a butterfly, small and quiet, not long is your life.

Dare to fly, disappear before the night time, where do you fly,

I saw into your eyes as you did see mine, more than a butterfly,

Fly Butterfly, fly beyond the night to where one day everything meets.

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

SHE WAS NAMED ANGEL

She ran with the wind but the wind could not chase her,

The clouds moved swiftly as she ran from the clouds,

Racing the morning light, she beat the sun going down.

Chasing the day, she waited until the day was done,

She ran as far as heaven, beyond the sun, run, run, run.

She was named Angel, Magic as she could not be outdone,

Strong with spirit and heart, never giving up, in the end, she won.

Keith Garrett

WHERE I WAS GOING

I was walking down the road, the moon full of glow,

Late into the night, on my face something of a fright,

In the distance forever was waiting for me, I can see,

Where I was going such a long journey beneath my feet.

I saw where I had come from, where it was I had been,

I left behind many a friend, far from here and then.

The road has been long, splits and turns to everywhere,

I carry my burdens upon my shoulders, leave them in the end.

Keith Garrett

ROBBIE PARSONS

YOU’VE GONE AWAY

I remember you, Mr. Parsons, from such a long time ago,

You woke to a morning, nineteen seventy eight is when I met you.

A young man with a smirk on your face, a walk to school you go,

Skatefactory and parties on many weekend nights, your teenage life.

I have been told you did frequent friends church at one time,

The love of music, I heard you did sing Beth as a youngster,

That Popeye’s imitation of yours was not too bad with a laugh.

I remember you well in the afternoon of your life, some good times,

We were roommates, you, my brother, and I, we worked side by side.

Many adventures from city to city, in the heat and rain we traveled each day,

So many stories were told, memories of days in a town, Placentia.

Robbie, friend of ours, there was happiness and laughter, that was real,

At one time it was you who did join the Air Force,

What later darkness and torment hovered within your soul?

It’s late afternoon, the sun is going down, where went your smile,

Darkness falls upon the land, God has come and taken hold of your hand,

Do not fear as pain and sorrow are no more here, you have gone away.

In heaven may your smile be always bright, no pain beyond life,

Listen to your music, sing your favorite song, eternity is all yours.

Rest in peace, friend,

Keith Garrett

As he sat down in his rocking chair he began to speak,

With a smile, he invited me to sit and went about his story.

His life as a child at the beginning of a war for Independence,

On a farm in South Carolina, he lived with a father, brothers, sisters.

He went on to tell of adventures in the Summer just before it happened,

A big house, great times with family, working the farm each day was tiring.

He must have been about ninety years old now, the war and those days long gone,

A childhood recalled, swimming in the pond with a friend or two, the night’s moon.

He told me of this war being all around them, nothing would be the same, much change,

Tears in his eyes as he described that time and place where brothers and family died.

He sits in his chair today, many years away from there, he lives in that house today,

He sits in his chair on that porch where as a child he played, he told me of his life.

Keith Garrett

WRITE THE POEM

You have it in you, stories to be told,

It’s in your heart and soul, young or old.

Whatever it may be from the sky to the sea,

Thoughts from your mind, life, and times.

Write the poem, write about today,

Yesterday is gone, words about the sun going down,

Write the poem.

Keith Garrett