A late night short feature (public service) often appeared on tv in the
roughly late '50s. The piece would be shown near the end of the
broadcast day. The Phantom jet was flying high and near clouds. The
poetic verse included the phrase, ... 'and touch the face of God'. I
am trying to locate the entire text.

Hello Gregory D

Thank-you for your question.

I believe you are looking for the poem, "High Flight" by John
Gillespie Magee, Jr., a young American who served with the Royal
Canadian Air Force in World War II.  He was inspired by his
experiences high in the skies, flying at 30,000 ft. After a flight in
September 1941 he had the poem almost complete in his mind and wrote
it out on the back of a letter to his parents. Sadly, this was just
three months before his tragic early death.


The poem ends:

"....................... I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God." 


You can read the complete poem here:

http://www.callofduty.com/articles/highflight.html



There's more on "High Flight" and John Gillespie Magee, Jr. here:

http://www.geocities.com/everwild7/highflight.html

At this site you'll find a picture of his grave with memories of an
Air Vice-Marshal who had encouraged Magee to pursue his interest in
poetry:

http://www.churchmousewebsite.co.uk/Magee.htm

You might be interested in this article on the poem's popularity:

http://www.qunl.com/rees0008.html


I hope this is the poem you were looking for. Please feel free to ask
for clarification if anything needs further explanation.

Regards - Leli


You'll find more sites with the poem and biographical information
using this search:

://www.google.co.uk/search?q=John+Gillespie+Magee++High+Flight&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&btnG=Google+Search&meta=

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Request for Answer Clarification by gregoryd-ga on 13 Oct 2002 18:13 PDT

Just a thanks. The response was right on. My somewhat blurry memory of
the poem was brought to me a couple of years ago when my son joined
the U. S. Army and successfully applied for Aviation.

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Clarification of Answer by leli-ga on 14 Oct 2002 00:50 PDT

Thank-you very much. Glad to have helped. 
Best of luck to your son with his career in Aviation and best wishes to you - Leli