Sometimes a moment of the highest grace - <br />which comes as unannounced as does our sleep - <br />allows our vision, resting on some face, <br />from the familiar, pass to unknown deep: <br /> <br />and there, beyond the contours made by thought <br />is shown to us a finer, nobler brow; <br />magnificent, heroic, wise; yet not - <br />and this so moving - far from whom we know; <br /> <br />this wonder makes me humble; questioning <br />what duty might this vision lay on me, <br />who's seen that self in self's own fashioning: <br />am I to act, or simply let it be? <br /> <br />But this is certain: all man's self-respect <br />be known, should self in others so reflect.<br /><br />Michael Shepherd<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/0157face-beyond-face/
