Steve L Snyder

Neil Garrison was my friend. Neil, Walt Wise, Rick Rokola and others enjoyed going to Crescent Bay Beach in our SPHS days. Neil was a lot of fun. After our graduation, Neil visited me in San Luis Obispo a few times a year. Neil was developing a serious problem with alcohol and was not taking care of himself. Neil moved around the country several times and worked menial jobs. Neil's health continued to deteriorate and he didn't care or wasn't able to pull out. Neil was a poet. Starting in the early 1970s, he would leave several pages of his poetry with me for 'safe keeping' when he visited (usually unannounced). One day in the late 1970s, Neil demanded the return of all his poetry (then about 25 pages). Unfortunately, days later, he lost those pages. I have only two pages (4 poems) left.

My favorite poem written by Neil Garrison, from 1976:

"We Are Gone"

We are gone.
All of us.
In some day.
On some way.
On waves.
On another...
Through invisible slits
And into black channels-
Cruising through the mind's canals.
It's all the same.
It's all the game.
We are gone.
We are pawned-
The cosmic loan office has us by the mind.

Walter W Wise

I miss my friend Neil. He had an insatiable thirst for knowlege. Not just books, but human nature and experiences that took him from penthouses to ghettos in his search. He introduced me to authors, artists and music that I would never have found on my own. "The more you know, the more you see" he would quote from Hemingway and laugh that it may not be a pretty sight. Neil viewed individuality as man's greatest gift and defended it against all comers, sometimes to his own detriment.
He wrote: I watched a girl
Curl her personality
In the style of her
Peers
The picture of Neil is from September 1984 during a visit to my Virginia hollow to "escape the confines of Big Brother". The U A stands for Un Abashed.