ILLUSION

Different names, faces that change,

Hurt feelings, love’s a hard game to play.

Winners and losers, each day the clock ticks away,

Disagreements that come to no end, words from lips, regrets.

Thoughts are different from different minds,

People change as the days drift in time.

Is there a value as discussion appears as fighting,

Angry faces and hurtful sayings aren’t kind.

What’s an illusion, something not there,

A trick to our minds that love’s in the air.

What once was is no longer now,

Was it ever there as we count the suns that go down.

A memory is a thought placed in our mind,

Illusion or reality as the days pass on by.

Keith Garrett

SOMETHING SO STRONG

For so long now a crushing pain, out of the darkness I find my way,

The sky I see above rests over the mountain I must climb.

A glow of light finds me as I make my way up the endless giant,

There’s a faith that guides, I am not afraid fore many will stand with me.

Inside this body lives a spirit of never ending fight for survival,

Something so strong, it conquers the force of doubt in another man.

I may not reach the top but I will try, I will get there, I’ll touch the sky,

Lost was I this man of many sorrows, a change in myself is discovered.

Such a long road on my own to follow, travel it with me now and forever,

I’ve seen the mountain, I’ve climbed high with blood and pain, to the top.

Many have come to watch my flight from the morning’s light into the dark,

With me they stood strong, they helped me climb when I weakened.

Something so strong as I would not fall, their strength gave me courage,

The mountain still stands, again I will climb stronger each time.

Keith Garrett

“SENSES”

Within us, there are things that make us feel and communicate,
They are sensitive but powerful to the human function.
Necessary are these but not threatening to the survival of ones being,
They give us the ability to seek out and experience the wonders of the world.
The sense of smell gives us the ability to distinguish between fragrances,
To like or dislike what is in the air.
To see is to have the chance of being able to personally witness in color,
Or black and white pictures of the world remembered by your own mind.
Amazing is to hear fore it is the sense of many musical sounds,
To the ears the knowledge of whom or what is near you.
Now the sense of taste is a great and remarkable experience for all,
Eating foods and enjoying drinks, the word flavor means what to your mouth.
Touch or feel can be an incredible and exciting pleasure to enjoy,
It is the sense that man and woman may share together.

Keith Garrett

I SAW YOU YESTERDAY,

YORBA LINDA

I saw you walking to school, on the bus you rode,

Driving by in your parent’s car, I saw you standing.

I saw you at the baseball field, so very young were you,

At Tastee Freeze on a warm Summer day, remember you and me.

Hanging out at Winchell’s, I saw you when we were teens,

I saw you at Thrifty’s, after school, and maybe a Saturday,

A triple scoop of Ice cream was fifteen cents back when we did dream.

I saw you at the pizza place, at the rat hole skateboarding mean,

I saw you yesterday Yorba Linda, on a playground, children were we.

I saw the hills, I saw your house, I saw you everywhere,

I saw you yesterday, Yorba Linda. when we were all just thirteen.

I saw the sun come up, I saw for years watching it go down,

I saw you, Yorba Linda, from when I found you oh! what a town.

Keith Garrett

SOMEWHERE

It is not here, a place where all may be fair,

Where all things are not torn to shred.

Somewhere where the sky is clean,

Mean is not seen, I guess maybe in a dream.

Somewhere far away where speaking is okay,

Where once simple things are not offensive,

Where our rights are not slowly taken away,

Somewhere but where, never again here.

Keith Garrett

SOMETIMES I WONDER

I think of things that might have been, why they are,

The past is meant to be the way it was, I wonder.

If perhaps a different road, a moment taken to think,

Sometimes I wonder what might be, another person I will be.

I have been blessed and I have had my share of painful things,

Decisions made, I wonder, an altered life maybe these things bring.

Everything appears to have a reason or so we may believe,

Coincidence, a choice made as we travel through our imperfect days.

Sometimes I wonder why I am here, a purpose not always so clear,

Sometimes I wonder, sometimes I wonder about this earthly place.

Keith Garrett

SITTING ON A TREE STUMP,

I WRITE
Saturday morning, early as the sun is shining down on my face,
Fall is here, there’s a coolness in the air, thoughts fill my head.
Under a beautiful oak tree of many, years I sit on this tree stump,
A stump that has a story, who might have been here before.
Sitting here I write, the land and world is my playground today,
By a creek with the sunlight looking down, I’m alone, a loud silence.
Sitting here on a tree stump I write my dreams down on paper,
I write about fantastic things that can never be done by me.
Possible adventures where I can travel down the road with a pen,
I have the imagination and power to create a world of hope and love.
Sitting on a tree stump I write poetry that I have hope will touch others,
Possibly make in their place a better day, I write all of you from a tree stump.

Keith Garrett

THE MORE WE TOUCH

We explore the seven seas, mine for gold, silver, and coal,

All the digging we can do, deeper in the Earth for oil we go.

To the moon, we have traveled, in space a traffic jam will be,

Chip away at all we can touch, we take and take too much.

Destroy life so that we may discover and learn, stop while we can,

The more we touch then more is a mess we make of what we have left.

We use this world as a study tool, tear it apart until there is nothing to use,

The more we touch, one day may be no other place to go.

Keith Garrett

THE MIGHTY SEQUOIA

How beautiful a tree that stands what seems like forever,

Some are more than three hundred feet high touching the sky.

Can you just imagine the time these trees have spent watching clouds pass by,

They have been standing strong while lifetimes have come and gone.

The mighty Sequoia, there Is one that lives for thirty five hundred years,

Imagine this, born to the world as It began Its growth before the life of Jesus Christ.

This mighty tree still stands two thousand years after the death of quite a man,

It Is the mighty Sequoia, King of trees, will stand forever as long as the earth will be.

Keith Garrett

THE MEASURE OF SUCCESS

Not to climb the highest mountain but too climb many mountains as high as you can,

To win the marathon not as important as too finish many.

To sail around the world is great, too sail to places of dreams greater,

It’s not to sing the best song ever written but too write many good songs.

To work one hard day in your life is no accomplishment,

Too work hard every day and give it your all is of greatness.

If to you having many friends is the greatest,

Then having one great friend is of value like no other.

If you can touch the world with many beautiful poems then that is beauty,

To hold onto only one of importance holds no treasure.

If you are of morality, if your word means something and your handshake is strong

Then you are successful, if you are not a quitter and hold your head high.

The measure of success holds a different meaning for all people.

Keith Garrett