Castlerigg, by W.F. Lantry

Castlerigg Stone Circle, photograph by Paul Taylor. CC BY-SA 2.0

Castlerigg

Their numbers are uncountable: it seems
four stones are sleeping underneath the ground
rising through centuries or falling back
beneath this undulating soil line.
And there are other mysteries: no track
remains from where they rose to where they're found
and we can't know their means of motion. Some

believe the slate was rolled on timbers from
our northern forests, carried here by hand.
Others suspect their weight was simply hauled
by means of rope across the ridge's spine.
But visitors who've seen them are enthralled
more by their use. We try to understand
and fabricate long explanations for

these unfamiliar structures we adore.
Were they a calendar, an almanac
to track the megalithic solar year?
Or were they simply placed in rough design:
coincidental symbols, stark, austere?
Some even hold they're aphrodisiac
backdrops for rituals conceived in dreams.
​
W.F. Lantry

W.F. Lantry’s poetry collections are The Terraced Mountain (Little Red Tree 2015), The Structure of Desire (Little Red Tree 2012), winner of a 2013 Nautilus Award in Poetry, The Language of Birds (2011). He received his PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Houston. Honors include the National Hackney Literary Award in Poetry, Patricia Goedicke Prize, Crucible Editors' Prize, Lindberg Foundation International Poetry for Peace Prize (Israel), the Paris Lake Poetry Prize and Potomac Review Prize. His work appears widely online and in print. He currently works in Washington, DC. and is editor of Peacock Journal.