I Woke Up in Love this Morning

(Song Lyrics)

I woke up in love this morning

The scent of you in the air

You were wrapped up

All in my arms

I was tangled all up

In your hair

I was lost in the warmth

Of your body

I could feel your skin

Soft against mine

I woke up in love this morning

We would have made love

If I’d had the time

(Chorus)

Out of my sweet dreams of you

Thrilled by the sound of your breathing

Softer than I ever knew

I woke up in love this morning

But duty called me away

I woke up in love this morning

I’ve been thinking about you all day

I woke up in love this morning

Like I have so often before

And like the first

Time that I held

You I felt I could

Not love you more

I was lost in the thought

That you love me

That you love me soul,

Body, and mind

I woke up in love this morning

We would have made love

If I’d had the time

If I wake up in love in the morning

Work will just have to wait

I may call in and

Tell them I’m sick

Or maybe I’ll just

Go in late

And if you are as soft

In the morning

If you look and

Feel just as fine

If I wake up in love in the morning

We will to make love

 ‘Cause I’ll make the time

©Stan Sanford, 2012

Twelfth Wedding Anniversary

Twelve years ago today

We paused along our way

Long enough to say “I do”

Making one of me and you

That one moment in time

We pledged ourselves to pray

For change in all we say

To treat each day as new

Seek only what is true

In all that’s yours and mine

I come now to renew those vows

And live them out as time allows

©Stan Sanford, 2012

The Dogwood

The dogwood tree outside my room

In winter is about to bloom;

It tells a lie that it is Spring,

Reminding me about the thing

The dogwood blossoms tell.

For in the midst of winter’s gloom,

The life of Spring begins to bloom

And sings the song that angels sing,

A greater life than summers bring

To rescue us from hell.

For only truth from lies can prove

The power of redemptive love;
And if our sin to hell would shove,
Grace reaches us from up above!

©Stan Sanford, 2012

Egocentric Predicament

The center of the universe

Is in my mind; but, even worse,

It’s also in your mind as well;

At least that’s what scientist tell.

If of the universe that’s true,

The outside edge is center, too.

©Stan Sanford, 2012

God Is

God is in you; God is in me,

What was, and is, and is to be.

God is beyond and other than;

Yet, God communicates with Man.

God is within the human mind;

God is before and after time.

God is within and outside space,

And God both has and has not place.

God is much more than we conceive;

God reveals God when we believe.

God is creator of all things,

Babies that cry and birds that sing.

©Stan Sanford, 2012

Love Is a Choice

We have all mistaken passion for love,

And we have said the sexual attraction is love.

Often we think that the novelty

Of a new relationship,

The discovery of never before

Experienced emotions,

Is the real thing.

It may be an encounter

With some special person

That seems to fulfill a dream

Or approximate an ideal

That convinces us that we are in love.

At other times we fall in love

When an attractive person

Gives us needed attention.

Some call love chemistry,

The bio-electrical response to a person.

Now love may encompass

Any or all of these ideas,

But none, singularly or collectively,

Define love.

Love that never ends,

That waits,

That respects,

That shares,

That celebrates truth,

That carries the load,

That hopes, believes, and endures

Resides in a choice,

A choice that sees another

As having supreme value,

A choice to treat another

With dignity and respect

Because of that value,

A choice to forgive,

Empower, and cherish,

A choice grounded in

Ultimate Personal Reality,

Which is, itself, Love.

©Stan Sanford, February 26, 2012

Sometimes

Sometimes we feel the sunshine

Sometimes we feel the rain

Sometimes we know the pleasure

Sometimes we know the pain

Sometimes the weight is heavy

Sometimes our load is light

Sometime travel through the day

Sometimes we walk in night

Sometimes the cup's half empty

Sometimes the cup's half full

Sometimes we have to push on

Sometimes we have to pull

Some say yin yang makes things fit

Some say it's simply opposites

©Stan Sanford, 2012

I Have Loved You All My Life

It has not been a whole year yet

Since the day that we first met.

That day was so remarkable;

I never will forget.

Your eyes, your voice, your lovely face,

Your charms, your smile, and gentle grace

Transfixed me there in time and space

As love swept over me.

Since then I find

You are on my mind

All day and every night.

For though it has not been a year,

I’ve loved you all my life.

(Chours)

I have loved you all my life:

I know that your love let

Me start to breathe, begin to live,

On the day that we met.

I had not started living

Until that special day

I was going through the motions,

Without a lot to say.

Since then I see

How life can be

So sweet, so rich, so right;

For though it has not been a year,

I’ve loved you all my life.

Now all the world seems so brand new

I think my life began with you.

You fill my life with meaning

In everything you do.

You told me that your love was mine

That day the sun began to shine,

And now I want you for all time

And for eternity.

Yeah life is sweet

And so complete

As you become my wife;

And though it has not been a year,

I’ve loved you all my life.

©Stan Sanford, 2000

Religion

Just thinking about a saying I came up with a few years age: "Every religion (including mine) has a spiritual core, clothed in cultural garb, and crusted with political garbage." Stan Sanford, 1994

Valentine’s Day 2012

Flowers of various colors and kinds

Speak of an equal variety of love’s expressions;

Yet, all flowers fade, wither, and die,

As, too often, love’s passions wane.

Candies speak of love that is sweet,

Tantalizing the tongue with exotic pleasures;

But tastes change, the desired becoming offensive,

As love, overly protested, questions its sincerity.

Beautiful jewelry and delicate lingerie

Quicken the pulse and brighten the eyes

Of the one receiving them;

Too soon, however, they come to reside

In the darkness of some drawer,

Infrequently, if ever, venturing forth;

Too soon, too, love retreats

To the shadows of the heart,

Failing to temper tongue or hand

In the course of day to day pursuits.

Today, in the place of these,

I simply renew my pledge to you

To listen and to learn, to lift and to wait,

To patiently persevere, to share and to forgive,

And to be the one that God

Appointed me to be in your life.

©Stan Sanford 2012

Dancing Dave

He has skin as dark as a southern night;
Like a summer cloud, his hair is white;
With a soiled white shirt, white pants, and gloves,
He speaks in riddles of the things he loves.
With a distant look in his tired eyes,
He’ll pause on his way with childlike surprise,
If you should happen to meet him by chance,
Respecting his choice, you should ask him to dance.
He may bum a smoke or ask for a dime;
If you don’t give them, he’ll still take the time
For a step or two, a mem’ry to save,
If you have the luck to meet Dancing Dave.

One of those guys that took less than he gave,
A dear child of God is ole Dancing Dave

©2012,

Stan Sanford

I AM There

When light broke into nothing

With a Bang that no ear heard

When Order sprang from Chaos

With the speaking of a Word

I AM there

When a single cell of Life

Oozed from a primal sea

And evolved in adaptations

To all life that came to be

I AM there

In the sunrise on the mountains

In the sunset on the sea

In the pain and joy of childbirth

In the prison—with the free

I AM there

When nail or phallus pierces

The flesh of innocence

And fire burns the children

In war’s heartless offence

I AM there

When sun warms the breast of earth

And life within it swells

When upon a bloody cross

Heaven enters hell

I AM there

In your deepest loneliness

Of homelessness and cold

Or in the silks of opulence

A voice of silence in your soul

I AM there

©Stan Sanford, 2012

Reality?

Were they only pictures,

The things I thought I saw?

Was it only randomness

Or universal law.

As former thoughts return to mind,

Were they mere fantasy,

Or did they form the essence

Of reality?

©Stan Sanford, 2012

Beyond and an Afterthought

Beyond

In my mind I travel

To places far away

To worlds beyond the universe

Where other being play

Very different from me

Yet very much the same

Created in One Image

Worshipping One Name

Mind beyond reality

Something greater still

The “More” of James

The “God” of saints

The all inclusive Will

The prophet and the seer

Behold what You behold

And pass to us the pictures

In stories they have told

I settle down inside of me

And step outside of time

My mind enters into yours

Beyond all space and clime

Through the worlds I travel

Not sure of what I see

In a moment yet beyond

Time and eternity

The essence of Your Being

With which all beings bond

Lies within the smallest thing

Yet always beyond

Afterthought

The poet and the seer

And the scientist

Are seeking understanding

Of all that may exist

The center of the universe

And its boundary

A point to be in time and space

And in infinity

What lies beyond the universe

Where boundaries cease to be

One steps into the mind of God

To Subjectivity

©Stan Sanford, 2012

Angry Birds

Angry Birds, Angry Birds

Fly through the air

Destroy your target

That’s waiting out there.

Expressing your anger

From the slingshot fly,

And cute smiling piggies

Surely will die.

If I am skillful,

Anyone can guess,

I can score more points

Shooting par or less.

What am I learning,

As I join the craze,

Joining the young crowd,

And filling our days

Killing the peaceful

In a rundown maze?

The art of destruction,

Learning new ways

To do it quicker,

More cost effective,

Piling up my wealth?

That’s my elective!

What are we teaching

With video games

To our sweet children?

That there is no shame

In acts of violence

And wiping out all

Who stand in our way,

As that were our call?

What can I say?

It’s just a release?

For they have hooked me—

This man of peace!

©Stan Sanford, 2012

Lazarus

I wrestle with an angel

My head upon a stone

A stairway leads to heaven

But I am all alone

In the night and darkness

I hear the demons moan 

Music without harmony

Color without tone

A scream shatters the stillness

The agony of soul

Life comes face to face with death

It makes the blood run cold

Life stands there before the grave

Where fragments of the whole

Lie scattered in the darkness

Beside a broken mold

No passion and no power

Someone calls my name

The stench of death is mine

All my guilt and shame

Captured on a canvas

I step outside the frame

When into the realm of death

Comes the living flame

©Stan Sanford 2012