‘I Say My Morning Prayer by the Ocean’
— Hannah Cohen
something beautiful
dies, your bones learn: there is no
hiding from suffering.
What is spirituality? Can someone ever fully comprehend or describe the human spirit or soul beyond our material forms? I don’t have an answer for this, but Ashley Mares’s poem unlocks just a small piece of that longing and acceptance we all seek. The visual form recedes and advances like waves on the beach. The voice here is a conch shell whisper—never forceful, but ever-present. Our lives can be full of bitterness and inevitability, but Mares’s poem reminds me that we can begin again, that we can endure.