A COLLECTION OF TIME

From our first look, a picture, a baby book,

Pictures in school, pictures in the park,

Home movies and videos, memories of who we are.

A collection of time, scenes and images from a life,

A scrapbook of many filled and turned pages to see,

Photo albums created from places, times with family.

A collection of time, pictures faded, recalled faces that change,

All that which we hold onto, saved in boxes, dusty shelves of thoughts,

A collection of time, memories in our minds, treasures left behind.

Keith Garrett

WORDS AND MUSIC

A simple word, formed with others to create conversation,

A tune heard passing by, music echoing in the dark of night.

Words are every day, not heard from a deaf man’s ears,

Music is everywhere, there is nothing dangerous to fear.

Words can be scary, angry, sad, blue, words that are true,

Music can take you far away beyond your same repeated day.

Words and music, together become a beautiful song, a story loved,

An ongoing love affair, nothing has to go away or ever end.

Keith Garrett

SONGS AND LIGHTS

Season of songs, season of lights admired for a moment,

Lyrics and tunes played with a mix of Winter wind and cold.

Bright colors of beautiful reds, greens, blues, and others,

Lights lights spectacular and flashing all through the night.

Hark the Harold Angels sing, one of many songs the season brings,

From your heart sing out, with such a love it does create.

Songs and lights together, words and colors put into a dream,

This is the way that I feel from inside me.

Keith Garrett

THE OLD NEIGHBORHOOD

More than forty years ago out there among some hills sat a town.

Already quite old but new to another generation brought together.

It was a place where as kids we could run in the fields, explore the hills.

I remember an old stagecoach laid over in a ditch, why was it there.

Those hills were beautiful and a great place for many adventures I recall.

Now most of them are gone or disappearing with years of man’s destruction.

I will say that I have walked or passed through every street in my time there.

The old neighborhood is now much older as I have walked where once walked,

stood in spots whereas a boy once stood, shadows are now larger from trees

that was so many years ago young and now much bigger and older I see.

Watching streets form that was not there, houses rising from the ground

that never were there, now more than forty years have passed as they have aged.

Ghostly images remain of friends who did ride skateboards, talk at school,

Hang out at a doughnut shop that has vanished just as those special friends have

wandered into the future where today they rest scattered across many lands.

I remember when streets didn’t go through, when Boone’s Farm wine was cool.

7- Eleven, triple scoop for fifteen cents and pinball machines, streets of Yorba

were indeed a dream, the old neighborhood and all of you from back then.

If you’re still out there, somewhere around, let your voice be heard,

make a sound, the old neighborhood, my thoughts from a kid in a Yorba Linda town.

Keith Garrett

TOMBSTONE

O.K CORRAL

More than one hundred years ago In a town of the west,

Cochise County Arizona, Tombstone was the place.

There took place a gunfight at the legendary O.K. corral,

Considered the most famous gunfight in the history of the old west.

In the street, possibly a cool, breezy, fall day, three P.M., an end,

Took place did it in a narrow lot six doors west of rear entrance to O.K. corral.

A thirty second gunfight would be most tragic, a famous story,

Fremont street, the O.K. Corral, Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Virgil, and Morgan Earp,

A fight with the Clantons and Mclaury’s on October twenty sixth, Wednesday.

Men died, Billy Clanton, Tom Mclaury, and brother frank lost their lives,

Morgan and Virgil Earp along with Doc Holliday were lucky to be only wounded.

Thirty shots fired, they were about six feet apart, men did die,

Wyatt Earp was the only one to escape unhurt, a long time ago in the old west.

Keith Garrett

MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE

I’ve drifted across the open sea, I wait for you to find me,

In a bottle I have been placed, a message that I am alive.

You are no longer there anymore but I let you know I exist,

A thought of what you meant to me, a thought of what I once meant.

If my message gets to you yet then again how can this possibly be,

You are a memory from yesterday, I am a thought that sails the sea.

Time does not stop, It has no sympathy, it makes what is what was,

Life and all that’s within it is reduced to memories, things of yesterday.

Message in a bottle is what I am, If you find me take me for what I am,

You are forever now, I am something that will one day fade away.

Keith Garrett

GIVE ME STRENGTH

Days can be a struggle at times, feeling much alone,

Physical pain and emotional scars are hard fought.

Stress and the desire to overcome tire a body and mind,

Worries of the time keep a soul from sleep in the night.

Give me strength to make it through beyond this coming sunset,

Guide me into my day of many challenges that tear at my heart.

Wisdom would be a true gift as I try to better my life and self,

Thank you for listening as there is much hope as I stand strong.

Keith Garrett

I’M GETTING OLDER

I first opened my eyes, once tiny and bright to this world,

A memory I do hold but remember not as I was a baby.

Pictures of my life are few compared to the window of my mind,

Once only a child, things I knew were also few, children that played

With this child are lost with time, always in my mind.

The world seems smaller as my life has spread further with the passing days,

I’m getting older, once I was a young teenager moving ever so fast.

Birthday to birthday comes a new number pinned to my aging soul,

Grateful am I with a much appreciated thank you and love of god

That he has given me life this long, I hope and pray that one day I’ll

Be forever remembered and once in a while thought of by you.

I’m getting older, maybe a touch wiser, possibly a better me,

I’m getting older, remember who I am, my name is Keith,

I am a mortal man living in this gift layed in my hand.

Keith Garrett

WHERE THE GEESE DREAM

I think of a place, hidden from the world,

A secret land safe from mankind, still with beauty.

Within these trees and plant life sits a lake like glass,

So calm when the air is still, moves slowly within a breeze.

There is a sound of peace here, frogs and fish move along quietly,

There is a mystery about this world, they come as one, never seen.

A special place, left untouched by those who destroy what is beautiful,

When you step into it you will be stunned by these creatures of thousands,

Here is where there is peace, this is where the Geese dream.

Keith Garrett

THE DUSTY TRAIL

Traveling through an untamed land, I travel,

All that I own packed upon my horse and wagon.

There’s a lot of quiet time thinking and looking,

As the day ends I set camp, a fire, supper, and my horse.

Noises of the night are owls, crickets, or the wind,

Lucky am I to hold this guitar in hand.

Feed my horse and off to bed for a little rest,

A gun close by as I sleep with an open eye.

Just call me bob as when the sun rises I’ll be gone,

A hot cup of coffee, a bite to eat, and off I go.

The dusty trail takes me to many places of sight,

I travel by day then it’s time to stop for a much wanted, peaceful night.

Keith Garrett