Solaces

by Carolyn Chilton Casas

May 11, 2026

Image of a waterfall. — Image credit: Alessio Zaccaria on Unsplash

Lately, I’ve been noticing

my neediness for comfort,

my craving to avoid anything

showing signs to the contrary.

Unwilling to turn the water off,

I linger in my hot shower,

feeling guilty the whole time

for wasting this precious resource.

I want to wake gradually each morning

to the gentle bells of flycatchers and thrashers,

not an alarm startling me from my dreams.

Chocolate, need I mention this obsession?

Preferably smooth, dark, and creamy–

it helps keep the shadows at bay.

And reading engaging stories

lets me enter lives not my own,

allows me temporary respite

from the urgent rapping on the

cottage door to my serenity.

Black and white photo of the author, Carolyn Chilton Casas. — Carolyn Chilton Casas

Carolyn Chilton Casas is a practicing Reiki Master and teacher who explores ways of healing in the articles she writes for energy and wellness magazines in several countries. Her poetry has appeared in journals such as Braided Way, Grateful Living, and One Earth Sangha and in anthologies including The Wonder of Small Things: Poems of Peace and Renewal, Thin Spaces & Sacred Spaces, and Women in a Golden State. More of Carolyn’s work can be found on Instagram and Facebook, at www.carolynchiltoncasas.com, and in her newest collection of poetry Under the Same Sky.