Storms

It’s hard to grasp.
How one day is innocence
itself, calm waters to the horizon,
broadcloth sails billowing
against a coral sky.
The next, you’re diving
for cover,
canon balls plummeting
all around your boat,
and the comrade you thought
had your back
has left on the only raft,
leaving you wounded and alone,
conjuring easy seas
of the past.

*

A New Day

To hold the day before me
like a rare treasure,
the hours smooth pearls
strung by hand
on a thick thread of longing.
To recognize my heart
connection to the whole
and remember my time here
is but a blip
on the edge of infinity.
To honor the miracle of breath,
organ, muscle, and bone.
Today, I open my child’s eyes
to wonder—how the doe
and the fawn trust me
as they nap on the grass,
how the whirring hummingbird
glistens green then ruby
in the fading sun.

*

Carolyn Chilton Casas is a Reiki master and teacher who often explores ways of healing in the articles she writes for energy and wellness magazines in several countries. Her poetry has been published in numerous journals and anthologies including The Wonder of Small Things: Poems of Peace and Renewal. She lives on the central coast of California where she enjoys nature, hiking, and beach volleyball. More of Carolyn’s work can be found on Facebook or Instagram and in her second collection of poetry Under the Same Sky.