for Richard Ryan

And in that instant
did I become a poet?
I was struck down
as by lightning's
fierce flash,
a savage music.

And all the confusions
of my childhood,
a small boy launched
into the empyrean,
hurtling back
to where we had come from:

a timid deer peering
from the hazel forest
of our holy mountain,
the saddle shape
of Knockmany Hill,
its magic stones.

Today's poem is from Second Childhood (Gallery Press), a posthumous collection by John Montague, who died on December 10th, 2016. It is due for publication on February 28th, 2017, which would have been Montague's 88th birthday