It Shows in Your Face

It Will Show in Your Face

It Shows in Your Face – pt 1

You don’t have to tell how you live each day,

You don’t have to say how you work or play;

A tried, true barometer serves in 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 the start,

For sinew and blood are thin veils of lace –

What you wear in your heart, you wear in your face.

If your life is unselfish, if for others you live,

For not what you get, but how much you give;

If you live close to God in His infinite grace –

You don’t have to tell it – it shows in your face.

by Russ Tyson 

It Shows in Your Face – pt 2

Don’t try and pretend to be something you’re not,

Some people are “haves” and others “have-nots”;

You can’t hide the truth, there’s always a trace –

If you’re wealthy or poor, it’s etched in your face.

It’s not how much money you have in the banks,

But how generous you are without seeking thanks.

If you are loved and content in your little space –

Your richness will shine, it will show in your face.

If you give others praise and credit where due,

They’ll often reciprocate and return it to you.

Racism and prejudice in this world have no place –

If you love all God’s people – it shows in your face.

by John Hansen © 2017

Prologue and Explanation for this Poem

Growing up as a child in and around the Brisbane area in South East Queensland I often listened to the radio and one of my favourite and most popular announcers was Russ Tyson. When television was launched in 1959 he also became the successful host of a number of programs on ABC TV.

I never realised that Russ Tyson was also an accomplished writer and poet, until recently when a friend loaned me a book called “Russ Tyson’s Philosophy Corner.” The depth of this book is amazing, and although A.B. Banjo Paterson has always been my favourite poet, that mantle is now shared by none other than Russ Tyson.

I decided to share one of Russ’s poems  It Shows In Your Face. I love this poem and its message so much that I decided to write a part 2 myself. I hope it does the original poem and Russ Tyson justice.

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John Hansen

Longtime poet but not in the traditional technical sense. I enjoy rhyme but like to experiment and dabble in many different forms and maybe even make up some of my own. There is always a message or lesson I want to promote through my writing, for that reason, my poetry generally shies away from the abstract and obscure.

Now I find myself branching out and experimenting with short fiction, and thoroughly enjoying this, especially flash fiction.

I have been fortunate to have two poems made into songs and recorded. The first "On the Road to Kingdom Come" by Al Wordlaw, and the second, "If I Could Write a Love Poem" by award-winning Israeli/British singer Tally Koren.

My services increasingly in demand as a freelance writer and I have ghost-written the text for a number of children's books and educational tutorials.

It has taken me many years of searching and restlessness to realise that my life's passion is to write. It saddens me that I wasted so many years not devoting to that, but thinking positively, the experiences gained over those years are now wonderful material for my stories and poems.

I want to try to bring a new focus on poetry and try to make it appealing to a new generation of young people and those who thought they never liked or understood it before.

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