Give me miraculous eyes to see my eyes --
Those rolling mirrors made alive in me,
Terrible crystal more incredible
Than all the things they see.

Sunder me from my soul that I may see
The sins like streaming wounds, the life's brave beat
'Till I shall save myself, as I would save
A stranger in the street.

G.K. Chesterton
The Sword of Surprise
from "Modern American Poetry", Louis Untermeyer, ed.
Harcourt, Brace New York, 1942