Heptonstall
Black village of gravestones The hill's collapsed skull Whose dreams die back Where they were born. Skull of a sheep Whose meat melts Under its own rafters. Only the flies leave it. Skull of a bird, Whose great geographies Drained to sutures Of cracked windowsills. Life tries. Death tries. The stone tries. Only the rain never tires.
Heptonstall - meaning Summary
Endurance Beyond Human Life
The poem presents Heptonstall as a harsh, almost skeletal landscape where village, animals, and birds are reduced to images of skulls, ruins, and failed survival. Its brief statements suggest that life, death, and even stone are locked in continual effort, but none endures completely. Rain alone is tireless, making the natural weather seem more persistent than human life or the built world.
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