Last Kiss

(Written as song lyrics)

I promise I will love you

‘Til the sun no longer shines.

I’ll give you all the love I have

And everything that’s mine.

I’ll love you with my heart and soul,

My body and my mind.

I’ll give to you the best of me

Until the end of time.

All I am, all I may gain

I simply want to give

To you with deep affection

As long as I may live.

When it comes my time to go,

I will whisper this,

“I love you” with my last breath

And give you my last kiss.

I will give you my last kiss,

And every one ‘til then.

This burning love I have for you

Will never see an end;

And while we’re living through this life,

I will promise this,

I’ll love you with my last breath

And give you my last kiss.

Forever I’ll stay near you

To keep you safe and warm.

I’ll gladly give my life for you

To shelter you from harm.

I’ll put my arms around you

When you are feeling small;

And anything you need from me

You will have it all.

You will never be in want

Of things love can supply.

I’ll dedicate myself to this

Until the day I die.

As long as I live in this world

You can count on this,

I’ll love you ‘til my last breath

And give you my last kiss.

©Stan Sanford

November 9, 1999

Silver-White

She is a special lady;

Her hair is silver-white.

She dried away my baby tears;

And she taught me wrong from right.

That was when she was much younger;

Now, many years have gone by;

A face once smooth now is wrinkled;

And hair, once black, is silver-white.

Silver-white, silver-white—

Her hair is silver-white.

Time has taken all it gave her

And left her hair silver-white.

Once she stood so very strong

Against the storms of time;

Now her strength has long since faded

She wears a crown, silver-white.

Life gave her such heavy burdens;

Somehow that does not seem right.

Not much joy was hers in living;

And her reward is silver-white.

Life for her was not easy

When she was a little girl;

And it did not get much better

When she went out into the world.

But she did her best to live it—

Always walking in the light.

Now the years have bent her shoulders

And left her hair silver-white.

Not so very long from now

She will leave us in the night.

She will go and meet her Savior—

Receive a robe of silver-white—

Oh Silver-white, yes silver-white,

In a home that’s silver-white—

She’ll be blessed for all she’s given

And wear a robe of silver-white.

©Stan Sanford

January 2, 1999

Isaac and Ishmael

We are sons of Father Abraham,

Isaac, and Ishmael—

Sons of Adam, sons of Cain;

But we are infidel.

We have not been faithful.

We have not believed.

We have shed fraternal blood.

Our sin we have not grieved.

Yet, Abraham, the Patriarch,

Remains our father; still,

The land will drink the blood

Of all his sons until

We become our brother’s keeper—

Isaac and Ishmael—

God wants to hear* the brothers laugh**

To free our souls from hell.

We must see that we are brothers—

Sons of Father Abraham!

We have not lived as brothers

Here in the Promised Land:

Common blood runs through our veins;

We too easily forget

We desecrate this Holy Land

On which common altars sat.

We deny that we are brothers—

Sons of Isaac, Ishmael;

We each claim the inheritance;

And as far as we can tell:

The promise is exclusive

By what the prophets said

And we will fight, each for his right

Until the other’s dead.

We are sons of Father Abraham—

We are Muslim, we are Jew—

By Ishmael and Isaac,

The promise we pursue.

But to neither brother

The heritage may fall.

The promise was to Abraham—

His legacy to all.

In the faith of Abraham

Let us seek the good

And find in faith a road to peace

To love and brotherhood.

That we may live upon the land

Where the blood of brothers fell

And harmonize fraternity—

Isaac and Ishmael.

©Stan Sanford

October 5, 2001

*In Hebrew: Ishmael means “God hears.”

**In Hebrew: Isaac means “he laughs.”

Isaac

What does it mean the saying,

“The prisoner will be free;

Crippled legs will walk again;

And blinded eyes will see”?

Isaac sits in prison

In a wheelchair every day.

It’s black as night.

He has no sight.

He says he’s found the Way.

He says he’s free,

That he can see,

He walks in fields of gold.

One he calls “Anointed”

Lives within his soul.

How can it be, this liberty?

He’s paying for some crime.

It’s razor wire.  It’s stench and mire.

All he has is time.

Isaac says he’s guilty.

He’s got what he deserves;

But now more than a sentence,

Another cause he serves.

He says he knows the meaning,

He has all that he needs,

Because someone

He calls “The Son”

Has made him free indeed.

What does it mean the saying,

“The prisoner will be free;

Crippled legs will walk again;

And blinded eyes will see”?

Stan Sanford

March 15, 2001

Hide and Seek

God, are you playing hide-and-seek,

As I did when a kid?

I used to always win that game

When I cleverly hid.

But now I find I must admit

You win the game hands down.

I’ve looked in every place I know,

And still you can’t be found.

In town and in the country side

And every were I look:

I can not find you in the Church

Or even in the Book.

Ready or not, hey, here I come!

I’m searching near and far.

But I give up and say, “Come out!

Come out from where you are!”

“I’ve planned it so I can’t be found

By science nor by art.

To find me you must look through faith

Inside of your own heart.”

©Stan Sanford June 17, 2002

I and I

Martin Buber taught us

Something rather odd:

In communications,

We cannot speak of God.

God in the third person

Cannot be God at all;

To talk of God as “he”

Is to relive the fall.

God, I must talk to you;

It's dialogue; that’s how

I may come to know you

When I think “I and Thou.”

If another joins us,

I know now what to do;

I’ll use second person:

Thus, I and you and you.

The more I talk to you;

More personal I find,

More than second person,

You are within my mind.

You’re to me First Person

I cannot if I try

Understand our being

For we are I and I

©Stan Sanford, 2012