It Shows In Your Face
Here’s a great poem you’ve probably heard before; it’s called “It Shows in Your Face” and the author is unknown.
You don’t have to tell how you live each day;
You don’t have to say if you work or you play;
A tried, true barometer serves in the place–
However you live, it will show in your face.
The false, the deceit that you bear in your heart,
Will not stay inside where it first got a start;
For sinew and blood are a thin veil of lace–
What you wear in your heart, you wear in your face.
If your life is selfless, if for others you live,
For not what you get, but how much you can give;
If you live close to God in his infinite grace–
You don’t have to tell it, it shows in your face.
-unknown

It Shows in Your Face. I’ll be reading faces now!
[Reply]
I think is is a wonderful poem, you can look at a person and see their aura, feel the spirit within.
[Reply]
Oh my gosh! I was just telling my son this very thing last night! He’s 15 and I was telling him that I realized that I need to start allowing him to make some of his own choices in life. I asked him if he’d ever met someone he instinctively didn’t like or didn’t trust. I told him that they had made poor choices that showed in their faces. The freedom of choice is a beautiful thing with awsome responsibilities. It determines who you are and how well you do in life. Thank you for adding validity to my teaching through the words of someone who isn’t his mom!
[Reply]
You’re welcome, Sandy.
Glad I could help out.
Shawn
[Reply]
Wow! very nice
[Reply]
Thank you so much for the words of this poem. I had it on my kitchen note board back in the 60′s and lost it through a couple of career moves. It is so true and did not remember that the author was unknown.
[Reply]
Beautiful and so true. It is said the eyes are the window to your soul.
[Reply]
The poem “It Shows In Your Face” was written by my great aunt Lottie Pratt Brown.
Thank You
Pat Pratt Bickley
[Reply]
shawn Reply:
October 15th, 2010 at 10:39 am
Thanks Pat! Can you tell me/us some more about her and her life? I found some info online just now; are there any links you can share? Did she have a book and if so, is there a website you can point reader to?
[Reply]
i dont know if anybody will see this, but an interesting fact stand true regardless. i do not intend to call Pat Pratt a liar, but in a video documentery of the late great Johnny Cash’s home life an interview with his mother took place, in which she recited this very poem and claimes to have written it. furthermor, she claimed that it was published in a local paper under her name, and if i am not mistaken she was rewarded somehow for having written it.i thought it was very interesting to see someone else take credit for it. again i have no reason to believe one over the other. i just thought it was strange, and i would like to do some more reserch on the subject. by the way Johnny Cashs mother’ name was Carrie Cloveree Rivers Cash. it also could have been Maybelle carter, the mother of the late June Carter Cash, but i am pretty confident that it was the former.
[Reply]