IF I WERE A GHOST

To be not anymore alive, not yet ready to touch the sky,

Wherever my spirit and soul must go, not ready to say goodbye.

If I were a ghost then what might my new world be like, some thoughts,

Faces and those whom I love I could see as they now can not until eternity see me.

Their words for me are heard as they know not that I am still around, I am here,

Not as I once was with body or identity but mind, spirit, and soul are together today.

Without the physical ability as once possessed my challenge of this new existence is now,

Remembering how I could pick things up and communicate seem now taken for granted.

If I were a ghost i would never again feel pain, no food would be needed to sustain,

Some good and some bad, a situation with feelings of sadness,

If I were a ghost i think it would be time to let myself go.

Keith Garrett

IF I WASN’T ME

You would not know me, my face, my name a mystery,

The voice that becomes a stranger to you would not be known.

Pass me by without a thought, no emotion or care, a stare,

There would for you be no memory of me, no late night dream.

If I wasn’t me would you wish to see, hear, or smile at me,

Would you be in want of a kiss without pain, a touch with no scare.?

Would a second thought be a possibility if I was a different me,

If I wasn’t me would you not forget me, would i still be a something.

Keith Garrett

IF I LEAVE HERE TOMORROW

May I be not always for you to see, if I should go away,

Do you think of me now or would I be remembered then.?

Today is a perfect day as the sun watches my traveled road,

My thoughts are many as the wind makes its journey around me.

What might change if tomorrow I say goodbye and disappear,

Each day will awake and each night will surely sleep, this without me.

Will you miss a poem or a smile meant only for you, a kiss once given,

If I leave here tomorrow will you seek me out, search this land.

Hand in hand would you walk along the ocean’s shore line,

Would you take me back to where your heart rests alone.?

Would you take hold, a woman such as you and not let me go,

If I leave here tomorrow then behind my heart would rest with you.

Keith Garrett

IF I HAVE TO DIE

IT NEEDS TO MATTER

A day will come when this will be, could be a sunrise, a sunset no more,

I can not imagine being gone, leaving this world behind appears unreal.

A life is special, all life as it is to be celebrated, the mark you leave behind,

Regrets, that which never was or could not be accomplished is a thought.

Our purpose for being here as it is only a short time compared to the birth of time,

What is it that’s to be learned from our visit to a land with more mystery always.

Discoveries are made as we search and explore a world so large but appears to get smaller,

What we have learned has helped our survival just as it does damage just the same.

If I have to die it needs to matter, I pray that i will one day be heaven bound,

If I have to go away then before my journey I wish to help another live one more day.

Keith Garrett

IF I EVER GROW OLD

From where my world began throughout my travels to different lands,

The history of my life up until this point has been written and put in a box.

I’m still young, but what is young, a number attached to the years lived here,

It’s a feeling inside, energy that you put out and the wanting of life keeps you young.

If I ever grow old then I’ll have been the lucky one, given a gift of more time to dream,

My book of life will be full of pages that describe who I am and then one day was.

There will be many thoughts and memories of a mans life, pictures of my existence,

Will I be forever remembered or perhaps thought of by those still living.

Will only the name of me, that which was given be all that rests of my life,

If I ever grow old will I be of good health and mind to sit back in a rocking chair

So that my children or Grandchildren may listen to me as I share my thoughts.

If I ever grow old then to the lord I’ll thank for this book of life full of stories told.

Keith Garrett

IF I DON’T LAUGH

I’LL SURELY CRY

Looking all around, seeing what’s happening with our own eyes,

On our land much anger and violent protests that get us nowhere.

Police are on the march, military putting their boots everywhere,

What are people really angry about as they scream and shout,

Signs are raised in the air all over the planet, do they protest life.?

If I don’t laugh about the horrible, ridiculous, and senseless games

Then it shall be that I’ll surely cry every night before I drift off to sleep.

Chaos is an epidemic roaming out of control with no end to be found,

Why can no one find a way to get along in this god given world.

Hostile faces live in all races because of mistrust and violation,

If I don’t laugh I’ll surely cry with the fear of bombs in many hands.

I pray that man changes but I fear that time will never come.

Keith Garrett

IF I COULD MAKE IT ALRIGHT

My eyes I would give you and be blind so you could see,

So that you could hear the sounds of the world, deaf I would be.

I would give up my voice that you may sing out your song,

Hold onto your hand when the pain of life becomes too strong.

If I could make it alright, any sickness for you would be my fight,

If I could make it alright, my sleep I would lose so you may rest through the night.

My heart is mine just as your heart belongs to you,

If I could make it alright then know that my heart I would give to you.

The ultimate gift would be to give so that another could live,

If your heart did cease to beat then my life I would give to you.

Keith Garrett

IF I COULD DO IT AGAIN

Never thinking about it as a child, growing as a teen not yet,

Is our path chosen, a small part but it is our choices that conquer.

Where we go or end up later in life is a decision from within us,

Hopefully we get the chance to do what it is we love and are happy.

Oh! if I could do it again i would change many things about myself,

If I could go back in time I would wonder more about the future.

A better attitude could have changed some of my grief, only some,

I may have been in a different place emotionally and the world.

Tried much harder to keep my friends no matter where I went,

Being better to myself would not have changed who I am but saved me.

We can’t go back and do it again, a reason for this, something to learn,

If I could do it again, some things left alone, things are supposed to be as they are.

Keith Garrett

“I”

I whom you don’t understand,

Once was small, use to sit in the sand.

Sometimes so hard in my heart it seems,

To show what is I, the reality not the dreams.

At a distance you are kept from what is me,

One whom likes music and writes words for thee.

Yes! I am afraid to show,

A much easier portrait for those to know.

I wear a mask for most to see,

Few only know that it is me.

This is a person you’ve just met,

Don’t know why but it is I.

Keith Garrett

I WILL FIND YOU

It was a warm Summers night when last you were seen,

Disappeared did you into the quiet darkness, but where.?

No understanding to my mind as why this could be,

Was there something wrong, what bothered your heart.?

I will find you, walk the open roads to anywhere,

Climb up high into the hills beyond the height of the trees.

Into the dark forest, fear will not weaken me,

Town after town I will search forever for thee.

Across lakes of many I will travel, I will find you,

Know that from dawn till dusk focus is in me.

Your trail is followed, the reasons for your departure are such a mystery,

I will find you, the truth shall be known.

Whether it be of force or a thought of your own.

I am known to you as you are to me,

I will find you, this will be.

Keith Garrett