Canon
(After John McGahern's Memoir)

In my mind are connected

The tree of life that gave birth to me

The rods cut and burnished from branches

With which the Law used to rain down

Blows to show me what was right

And the iconocolasm that grew in me

To break out of this hole

Encroaching, as always narrowing the

Space left for my own territory f discovery

With these words I hope to upstage

Bring into light a measuring rod

A canon from the germ of my own mind