GOLDEN HAIRED LITTLE GIRL


 She was born In nineteen twenty eight, a star 
 She would soon be,

 This golden haired little girl with a pout that 
 Could melt anyone's heart.

 She would sing and dance, shaking her golden curls  
 All about,

 A beautiful little child, a star growing up back 
 In the thirties.

 There has never been a child star like her and 
 Never will be again,

 Her smile would light up any room, she lived In a  
 Time of depression.

 World war two was closing In but her movies could
 Take away the struggles

 Of everyone's pain from those days, you could go away, 
 If only for a moment.

 What a life for a girl named Shirley, so young when 
 The whole world knew her,

 In a time of great entertainers, a changing world, 
 Shirley Temple was around.

 She grew up to be a woman but the little girl would 
 Go on to live forever,

 Her movies will never go away so she will live In our 
 Hearts always.

 Here's to you golden haired little girl, In heaven  
 You'll be again that little girl.


                   Keith  Garrett                                   

            FROM 18 UNTIL THIS DAY


 Much younger was I back when the sun rose much 
 Higher in the sky,

 Still but a teenager as once a thought that I might 
 Have been a man.

 When I was eighteen I was going to the beach, 
 Dreaming about life ahead,

 Long blonde hair and searching for that always 
 Wanted summer tan.

 The sun begins to move west and I go beyond those 
 Teen years,

 I follow the sun, it looks down upon me each morning 
 Then I chase it.

 I walk the road, I live my life, the sun travels  
 Further than I can run,      

 The  more I follow then the older I seem, I have  
 Dreamed, no more eighteen.

 I am older than some friends once were, older than a
 Father gone far away,

 From 18 until this day I have changed in different ways, 
 The sun now half way.

               Keith Garrett                          

                                                                                        
               A PICTURE OF YOU


 Plenty of times I saw you, watched as you changed,


 A portrait of a baby, many years ago as time has 
 Aged it.

 As a child, you appeared a certain way, young at play.


 From twelve to seventeen, a face that went different 
 Ways,

 Twenty was a special year, your first child, a boy 
 Named Gary.

 Seven children as the years went by, your picture 
 Changed,

 Beyond eighteen or twenty five, seasons changed in 
 Your eyes.

 Mom! I miss you, I think I can hear you when I sleep 
 In the night,

 A picture of you rests in my sight, a picture of you 
 In a book that I write.

                  Keith Garrett

              CAN YOU HEAR ME LORD?


 Tears running down my face, this face created 
 By you,

 Lie do I when to those I say there's no pain, I cry.


 It Is you O' Lord who sees me as sitting here I 
 search,

 Within myself the answers are not found, am I a 
 Good man?

 Help me, rid me of this sorrow eating away at my 
 Crying heart,

 Listen to me, can you hear me Lord, can you hear 
 My thoughts?

 Are you near Lord, are you with me as I ask of you 
 To love me,

 Comfort this foolish, pain soaked man of a thousand 
 Tears.

 Let me hear of a song that says love still lives 
 In our world,

 Give me something to hold On to as I dream and breathe.


 Can you hear me Lord, will you hear me tonight,


 As I drift off to sleep will you sit with me, will you 
 Say goodnight?

                 Keith Garrett

               AN OLD MAN


 I saw an old man, standing in the sand, with 
 Cane in hand, staring out at the horizon.


 I asked of him what his thought's were about,


 He stared at me with a sigh and a smile.


 I'm one hundred and three as I look to the sea,


 I've outlived my wife and family.


 I've had a life, seen many wonderful things,


 Now an old man, old as the trees.


 I say old man! what is it like to be one hundred 
 And three,

 I don't know, I only know what it's like to be me.


 I asked of him, would you wish to again be a child,


 He replied, my only wish is to again see my wife's 
 Smile.

 I asked to him an old man, what's the greatest thing 
 You have done in such a lifetime,


 His words to me were this, I married a beautiful wife,  
 I walked with her in the sand,


 I saw her smile, and now here I stand.

                                                                                         
       Keith Garrett   

            AMONGST THE AUTUMN TREES



 Into the shadows, underneath the shaded trees,


 Footsteps on a carpet of leaves falling like rain.


 Glance do I at what's above, flashes of sunlight,


 Gleaming through living statues of brilliant color.


 A gentle breeze whispers past through the branches,


 Ornaments let go of the arms that hold them floating


 quietly and gently to the ground.


 Further into the Autumn day I venture,


 All is calm with nature as it invites me to 
 Share the day.

 Amongst the Autumn trees lies much more than one 
 Dares to dream,

 A never ending cycle of life that can't always be seen.

                           Keith Garrett

                                                                               
             BILLY MITCHELL

 Today in my mind but yesterday was a 
 Long time ago,

 I think of you, a place and a school, I 
 Was a little boy.

 It was nineteen sixty seven, Kindergarten 
 And you,

 The first day of school is recalled in my mind, 
 A boy I saw cry.

 His name Was Cotero, I think of those clowns on a
 Wall,

 Are they still there? I wonder, swing sets and 
 Young friends.

 A boy named Grover, Duck, Duck, goose, Graham 
 Crackers and milk,

 Nap time, I remember the cabinets with cartoonish 
 Pictures.

 Reading time was the best, Fold out books, three 
 Dimensional stories,

 Hansel and Gretel, all the best, I was there until 
 Ninety seventy.

 Hard to remember the teachers names, Mrs. Scott 
 Back in second grade,

 I think it was Mr. Kelly, Principal with dark hair 
 And glasses.

 John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt was a song in the 
 Cafeteria,

 After school and on the weekends you could play games,


 Carroms, maze, and more, Billy Mitchell, when once 
 I was a child.

 Friends, Jeff, James, Jimmy, and Alan, wherever  
 They are, I remember,

 There was a bell back then known as the freeze bell, 
 Stand very still.

 We all have our childhood, our memories, a town to 
 call home, then we roam,

 Billy Mitchell, I find myself wandering back to you, 
 Memories of a school.
                                Keith Garrett

                                                                           
              BENEATH THE AUTUMN SKY


 From up so high life goes on down below, 
 This is so,

 It is seen from above, from the heaven where 
 We are to go.

 Beneath the Autumn sky everything lives and 
 Has its time,

 There's a cycle of life, all things rotating as 
 If it were a dance.

 Watch as the leaves disappear from the trees, 
 Falling together,

 They vanish, crumble and blow away with the wind 
 Always.

 Beneath the Autumn sky there are colors of orange,  
 Yellow, and red.

 Shades of beauty that are here for a Fall season, 
 They soon slip away,

 A cool breeze in the air, animals collecting food 
For a Winter cold.

 Beneath the Autumn sky there is life moving as all 
 Things must die.
                 Keith Garrett

                   DEEP FOREST


 Step Into reality, an exotic and spectacular 
 Place of dreams,

 Realize this world of adventure and things' 
 Not too often seen.

 Somewhat dark with a hint of light beaming 
 Through the trees,

 Sounds all around as the creatures of this land 
 Watch in the shadows.

 There's a misty haze that appears as the night 
 Shows its face,

 So far away from the not so peaceful, deep forest 
 of that which breathes.

 Leaves upon the ground, walking among life that 
 Speaks not a word we hear,

 With these feet we make our way from a magical 
 Getaway of existence.

 This forest, a beautiful deep forest hiding from 
 The outside,

 Lost In It may be the heaven, the happiness, 
 A garden of eden.

                     Keith Garrett  

                                                                            
          ANOTHER TIME AND PLACE


 I write to you from yesterday, a very long 
 Time ago for you,

 Long before you were born in a town of people 
 And family.

 My family and I were up before the break of dawn, 
 Working,

 Children of a simple time but at times not so 
 Simple you see.

 Horses were a common thing just as your car 
 Is in your time,

 Things of your day not dreamed up as of yet, life
 Was hard, also fun.

 Here in yesterday there is sickness that kills many 
 As there is no medicine,

 As I sit here on my farm watching my wife and kids  
 Play, I write this to you.

 When you receive my letter it will be that I and those 
 I love will be gone now,

 You will have all the things that we here have never  
 Seen, good and bad.

 There are beautiful things and land that will disappear 
 With them, I can see them,


 I live here in another time and place just as you do,  
 I hope this letter gets to you.

                  Keith Garrett