In the Dance

In the Dance

Movement of the dance

All my senses fill

Wrapped around each other

Enraptured by the thrill

Of passion and of fire

Caught up to paradise

Love upon your face

Love within your eyes

Magic of the dance

Sensual delights

Flights of ecstasy

Blending sound and light

An eternal moment

No beginning and no end

Love upon your breath

Love upon your skin

Miracle of dance

Of a gift divine

All of mine is yours

All of yours is mine

Everything from God

Perfume in the air

Love within your touch

Love upon you hair

Marvel of the dance

Emotions minds amaze

Dancing through the nights

Dancing through the days

Souls in harmony

Move in creative style

Love within your voice

Love within your smile

--Stan Sanford

©2011

We Come to This Moment

We come to this moment

With all our hopes and dreams

To form a living river

From two flowing vibrant streams.

In this sacred moment

New creation is begun--

God takes our individual lives

And molds them into one.

We come to this moment--

We come to seek God’s face

With open lives before Him--

His mercy and His grace:

Mercy and forgiveness

For mistakes that we have made;

His grace and restoration

In His Love for this day.

We bring to this moment

The lives that we have lived

Redeemed through God’s salvation—

The eternal life He gives.

All we are, all we have been,

He recreates in love--

Transforms us through His power

With wisdom from above.

We offer now before His throne

The gifts that we’ve received

To claim as Gift each other

In the Promise we’ve believed:

The Promise of His Presence—

That He would always be

The eternal bond of love

Uniting you with me.

We come now to this moment

To pledge our love and life—

Each one to the other,

As husband and as wife.

©Stan Sanford

January 24, 2000

The Spiritual and Physical

The spiritual and physical,

So intricately entwined,

Hold delicately the mysteries

Of matter and of mind.

The spiritual and physical—

We cannot separate.

They must be held in harmony

And somehow they relate.

The greatest of all human minds

Have done their best to think

Of how they are connected—

Somehow explain the link.

The link remains illusive, though.

That cannot be denied

And cannot be identified,

Though many often tried.

What happens in the physical

Affects the spirit, too.

We diminish spirit

With harmful things we do.

But if we’re spiritually alive,

Our minds and bodies rise

To a higher plain of life

Made one with earth and skies.

©Stan Sanford

September 5, 2002

Naked in the Light

My soul stripped bare,

I’m standing there

Naked in the light.

Only a song

Echoes the wrong

Of what I planned for right.

I’m standing naked in the light

Nothing can I hide

Every wrong I ever did

Every lie I lied

Are now exposed

And heaven knows

The love I crucified.

How could it be

I did not see

The danger in the lurch?

No help I find

For heart or mind

From State or from the Church.

Now powerless

I only guess

At how the wind will blow

And sweep away

The words I say—

To where I do not know.

More drastic still

My strength of will

Has gone as I had feared.

With no control

Of flesh or soul

Will, too, has disappeared.

And worse of all,

As with the “Fall,”

A chasm has been cast

That separates

Where love awaits

The first one from the last.

My soul stripped bare,

I’m standing there

Naked in the light.

Only a song

Echoes the wrong

Of what I planned for right.

I’m standing naked in the light

Nothing can I hide

Every wrong I ever did

Every lie I lied

Are now exposed

And heaven knows

The love I crucified

©Stan Sanford

March 1, 2002

Homeless

When the night comes down upon you

And you have no place to rest,

When the light of day deserts you

And in the darkness you’re distressed,

When you feel like you are wasted

In the shadows all alone,

And when you can’t remember why

You’re there without a home,

When you have no one to turn to,

When you have no one to care,

You only have to call my name,

I promise I’ll be there.

When no one recognizes you

And the world is passing by,

When people do not look your way

Or care if you live or die,

When hunger will not leave you

And the morning finds you cold,

When you have nothing worth stealing

But they’re out to take your soul,

When you think you’ve reached the end

And do not have a prayer,

You only have to call my name,

I promise I’ll be there.

When regret walks in the darkness

Of the shadows of your mind,           

And you struggle with your mem’ries

But you cannot seem to find

A trace of friendly faces there

Of those who shared your life—

You no longer know your children;

You can’t recall your wife—

When you heart becomes so heavy

That it’s more than you can bear,

You only have to call my name,

I promise I’ll be there.

I'll be there with you in darkness.

I’ll be there with you in pain.

And when you have no shelter

I’ll be with you in the rain,

I will be your sanctuary—

Your dispossession I will share.

And when you think you are most alone,

I promise I’ll be there.

©Stan Sanford

October 1, 2011

Earth Water Wind and Fire

Flames flare all around us

Inferno heat intense

Prepare now for the battle

Take up the defense

Defense becomes offensive

Friend becomes enemy

Fire works destruction

Breaking unity

Floods flash from above us

The tempest rushes on

Grasping at the flotsam

Terra firma gone

Each man looks out for himself

Room enough for one

Solitary castaway

When the storm is done

Foundations fall beneath us

Earthquake nothing stands

Houses built upon the rock

Houses built on sand

We cannot run for shelter

We just run away

All the bonds are breaking

This is judgment day

Fury forces down the walls

For protection built

Scatters the protected

Jetsam in the silt

Caught up in the whirlwind

Blinded by debris

Fragment batters fragment

Eyes no longer see

It is the test it’s judgment day

I seem to always fail

In earthquake storm and fire

Faith and courage quail

Failure needs forgiveness

Free and unearned grace

Favor without merit

To hold the parts in place

Wholeness or destruction

Crises are at hand

We will fall if torn apart

Together we may stand

Wedges only separate

What will admit the wedge

We can only stand at all

Together on the ledge

Earth water wind and fire

Destroyers seem to be

But the essence of existence

In some philosophy

Let not the elements destroy

That which they compose

What creates life causes death

In solitude disposed

©Stan Sanford 

January 30, 2001

She Touches Me

 (Written as song lyrics)

My body’s tired and worn.

The day’s been hard on me.

I’m like a child, new-born

When she quietly

Touches me.

She touches me.

She has the healing touch.

She takes away my pain,

And I need her so much

To make me whole again.

She has the healing touch.

The magic in her skin

Has loving power’s such

That I am healed again

When she touches me.

She touches me.

I’m troubled and confused.

The world has bent my brain;

But then my mind’s renewed

When she once again

Touches me.

She touches me.

I ache deep in my soul—

My failure and my sin.

I am again made whole,

When my closest friend

Touches me.

She touches me.

©Stan Sanford

July 23, 2001