FEATURED: All Hallowed

by Ashley Sposato

ALL HALLOWED

The morning sun unfurls, a red and

perfect flower, dawn bleeding through the

frost and brume. Just over the hills, an

orchard grows sweet in the gathering

light.

Somewhere, ash and ember are coaxed

into fire. A copper kettle remembers what

it is to sing.

Deep in the forest, a mother bear brings to

herself all that she will require to make it

through the long winter months, to

welcome the dark and sleeping seeds

waiting within her.

In a kitchen, the scent of apples and

cinnamon limns the air; jars line the

countertop, filled to the brim.

The days are shorter now; morning and

night no longer equidistant. As the

weather grows colder, so too do I

remember what it is to return to the ritual

of harvest, to tuck away praise and quiet

my soul before the dark.

And so I weave a warm garment of

worship, sing hymns not only of hearth

and byre but of the gloaming in between,

the witching hour where the space betwixt

Heaven and Earth grows thin.

ASHLEY SPOSATO

Ashley Sposato is a chronically ill poet and artist who lives in North Carolina with her husband Christoffer and sibling Alder. Originally from a rural valley nestled in the hills of the Berkshires, she has an abiding reverence for natural and pastoral landscapes.

Ashley is author of Idyll & Wild, a weekly Substack publication, which seeks to weave myth and magic with substance and heaven with blood and bone. An aspiring folklorist, she invites readers to explore the present through the lens of centuries-old stories.              

Ashley is currently writing a book of poetry, as well as a fantasy novel with her husband.