Hollow them, hallow them

A poem at the twilight end of autumn

Photo by Zoran Kokanovic on Unsplash

[Here’s a reprise of something I posted in this same season in 2024. The prose is edited some. The audio has been recreated. The poem abides.]

We can try to fill it with candy and cartoon costumes, and those are fun. And the season goes on being what it is: a time to kindle small lights against the growing darkness, a time to stand near one another for warmth against the growing cold, a time to remember our beloved dead and the ways their lives embraced our own.

---

LITANY FOR HALLOWTIDE                                                                   2024


First One and Maker
Giver and Taker
hollow your children
hallow them all.

The dead and the living
forgiven, forgiving
the rich and the needy
the gracious, the greedy

Hollow them, hallow them
hallow them, hollow them
hollow them, hallow them
hallow them all.

Hallow in darkness
hollow in light
wounded in living
whole in your sight

Worthy, unworthy
the sick and the sturdy
hunter and hunted
the brave and the daunted

Hollow them, hallow them
hallow them, hollow them
hollow them, hallow them
hallow them all.

Hollow their hardness
fill it with light
hallow their brightness
to sing through the night

Cruel and caring
enduring, despairing
the lofty, the lowly
the vile and the holy

Hollow them, hallow them
First One and Maker
hallow them, hollow them
Giver and Taker

Hollow them, hallow them
hallow them, hollow them
hollow them, hallow them
hallow them all.

---

Once the busy-ness of harvest is over, there’s an emptiness to this season; things are ending, dying back, hollowing out. That’s okay; it’s part of the pattern of things. Another part of the pattern is our remembering, honoring, hallowing what’s ended and who’s departed from us. Sitting still in the hollow spaces, trusting that something new will come when it’s supposed to.

Whatever name you give this season, however you observe it, I hope it’s a blessing for you. It can be a lonely time, as the days draw in to darkness; I hope you know that you’re not alone.