If I could be your brightest moon
and you my midnight star,
I’d travel through the universe
to meet you where you are.
All the other stars I’d leave
and follow you forever,
for never will I shine as bright
as when we shine together.
That glinting twinkle in your eyes
would set my face aglow,
sharing secrets of the galaxy
you’ll burn for me to know.
When it’s time for us to find
a hiding place to sleep,
near or far I’m where you are,
in space we choose to keep.
Be mine you see, your brightest moon
and you my midnight star…
I’ve traveled the whole universe
to be here where you are.
~Jeannie Cronin
Even though it feels somehow
like you’re already slipping away
I have to remember to tell myself
how blessed I am for each day
I love the ways you try so hard
to see the smile I keep
making up for all the time
we lost while you’re asleep
Still each day I’m anxious
for the time I get you back
‘Cause once you lay down on the couch
you’re out in no time flat
I miss the talks and all the laughing
like when we first met
to feel this change so early on
I never would have bet
We didn’t get the time we need
to see the seed we’d sown
Still mine will be the greatest love
you ever will have known
And when that time still bound to come
when you should take your leave
leaving me in sadness
with an emptiness to grieve
It feels as though you’re preparing me
to survive that awful day
through the numbing days of loneliness
when I feel you slipping away
~Jeannie Cronin
My darling Miss America
before I bid you adieu
I wanted you to know my dear
how proud I am of you
In my heart I always knew
that you would find your way
still you had me pretty nervous
right to the final day
Sometimes you think it trivial
the things you choose to do
but in this path you chose to take
the world has hope anew
To know you found your dignity
more valuable than pride
that you overcame your darkest fears
to declare what you’ll not abide
Your soul is sure to keep its glow
as you were always dest
Of liberty and freedom
may your heart stay ever blessed
See you soon
All my love and hope,
Father Time
~Jeannie Cronin
Today I saw the woman
who seemed missing of her smile.
I watched her there
and we started to stare
at each other for a while.
I looked at her mouth
and heard her say,
“To thine own self be true.”
While in her eyes,
so tired but wise,
my every thought she knew.
She’d felt every feeling
and she understood my pain,
just as if she
were a part of me,
with somehow something to gain.
I wondered if she might go on
with seemingly much to say,
but matching my stare
she just stood there,
so I guessed it would not be today.
Feeling the oddness we looked away,
then I reached for the door.
When I turned off the light
she had gone from my sight
and the mirror went black once more.
~Jeannie Cronin
Then soon the climate migration began
when one they called Ian had ravaged our land
So fiercely he raged with his power and might
all would lay waist in the wake of his flight
So was the damage that Ian had done
the people were left but to follow the sun
Masses of people now needing a home
many left stranded to endlessly roam
Ian had not been the first of his kind
others had come with a furious mind
but his was a wrath leaving such devastation
attention to climate change gained revelation
People were leaving where temperatures soared
wells ran dry and fires roared
Some had to leave where waters were rising
all of their worlds felt the weight of capsizing
Suddenly cities and towns were outgrown
the people kept coming from places unknown
With resources slow to keep up with the pace
compassion would soon test the whole human race
Climate migration has only begun
The heart of the whole human race must be won
What other chance will we have to survive
than to trade in our sides for the mind of a hive?
~Jeannie Cronin
Since the day you left
I’ve been saying goodbye
with a heart full of hope
someday I’d know why
but now it seems I have to let you go
All my strength
is all but gone
from the ledge
you left me hanging on
with fear of falling all I’ve left to know
For all the things
you were to me
that dreaded day
did come to be
your hidden courage just couldn’t be found
The silence let’s
your courage hide
from the painful price
of your foolish pride
and all the things you say without a sound
The doctor says
it’s me or you
believe me when
I say it’s true
It’s now become a choice of life and living
Now holding on
means letting go
but one thing you
must always know
the life and love you took was worth the giving
~Jeannie Cronin
When time is nigh
means time to die
and now you know
the when and why
suddenly you have
so many reasons to live
Wishing for ways
you could change all the days
your raging pain
kept your ire ablaze
with so much more than anger
left to give
Everything thought
so important to you
becomes of the least
your heart now longs to do
All of your thoughts are focused
on what they’ll remember
Did the warmth of my fire
bring comfort or pain
my brightness of light enough to remain
before the flame became a dying ember
Now you can see from the other side
from nothingness
with nowhere to hide
the light to fade with the setting of your sun
There’s nothing I can change of the past
but pray it all will make its last
impression be of love for what is done.
~Jeannie Cronin
I don’t need to be told what I’ve seen
whether it’s real or a sinister scheme
I need a world where I know the rules
which we call wise which we call fools
Where the lines in the sand are a lot less hazy
and people agree on who people call crazy
But the lines in the sand have gone every which way
from the truth of obscurity growing each day
We’re a nation of leaders who’ve lost their way
where all are consumed of crescendoing fray
skulking in darkness on weakness we prey
leaving in question what’s lighting our way
This dreariness some are beginning to feel
the mental fatigue of discerning what’s real
Confusion and chaos have run us aground
far from the winds in our sails we had found
I don’t need to be told what I’ve seen
but I fear what I’ve found that remains of the scene
folks with no compass no maps and no guide
colliding in wastelands of deepest divide
Where is the ground upon which we can stand
steady behind the lines drawn in the sand?
For what shall we fight still united as one?
For what shall we die when it’s all said and done?
~Jeannie Cronin
My Dearest Miss America,
the time has come for you
to use your voice
and make your choice
of the future you shall choose.
Each suitor is quite different
in most explicit ways,
like where they stand
on the laws of the land
and extremes to which they stray.
Choose carefully my darling
your chalice there awaits,
each takes you far
from where you are,
the sealing of your fates.
Because you know I love you so
and care about your life,
I have to say
I hope and pray
your choice is dignified.
One which keeps your head held high
loved deeply and respected,
proud of your name,
unburdened of blame,
or the pain of being rejected.
I’ll be there in November
upon your Election Day,
anxious to hear
your choosing my dear
of the fate that will lead you away.
Will it be one of stability
faithful, just and true?
Or will it be one
where truth matters none
that’s captured the heart of you?
My dearest Miss America
the time is drawing near.
I hope I know
which way you’ll go
but the choice is yours my dear.
All my love and hope,
Father Time
~Jeannie Cronin
How can you say
every life should be saved
when you have no concern for the living,
for the hungry and poor
you have saved that life for
yet find yourself so unforgiving?
~Jeannie Cronin
Hello fellow travelers
out there on your own,
just checking in
to let you know
the danger here has grown.
An evil demon monster,
like the one from “Stranger Things”
has whipped a storm of angry rage
and suffering that brings.
Some people seem to like it,
like a virus it has grown.
It’s sites, to have successfully
seen our government overthrown.
Hear me fellow travelers,
when you finally lift your eyes,
you’ll see the ways
they’ve changed our lives
and probably be surprised.
While travelers have carried on
increasingly checked out,
that virus found a place to thrive
and drive what we’re about.
A rising hateful nation
is emerging from their fire,
hard to say how much suffering
will follow in their ire.
You say it’s not your business
but all are soon to see,
the next rights they come calling for
belong to you and me.
Hello fellow travelers,
just stopping by to say,
you might want to pay some attention
to who’s making our laws today.
There’s gonna be hell to pay
if everyone just looks away.
~Jeannie Cronin
I tried again writing a poem today,
so many things I’ve been wanting to say.
I picked up my pen and stared at the page,
then quickly got lost in a frustrated rage.
Something has changed in the mood of my muse.
Harsh words of anger are all she will use.
Her used to be world filled with love, faith, and hope
now lost in the swirl of a thick hazy smoke.
Sometimes it seems like the smoke starts to clear,
like maybe there isn’t as much I should fear.
But every new day brings a little bit more,
like Amazon boxes piled up at the door.
Oh how I miss all The hours and hours
of capturing honeybees dancing on flowers.
The flowers are gone now and so are the bees,
not even the sound of a bird in the trees.
I know they’re still there, I just can’t seem to see them.
Now most of my days are spent wishing to be them.
Stuck in the world of a cold prison gray,
there will be no writing a poem today.
~Jeannie Cronin
Because of you whom choose to live
your lives in willful blindness,
whom know inside you’ve failed yet
still expect a world of kindness,
whom weren’t there to show you care
although you knew it mattered,
well now our whole democracy
has cracked and nearly shattered.
How can it be that those whom choose
to live in willful blindness,
yet somehow they expect to find
the world still filled with kindness,
that they think they can live their life
expecting all their choices,
and never think the time will come
for them to use their voices?
The rights we think we’re born with
were never truly ours,
What’s here today can be snatched away
when the will of the people cowers.
As willful blindness keeps our courage
neatly tucked away,
It’s hard to watch how everything goes
from bad to worse each day.
The time has come for Americans
to rise above and see
turning away will only serve
to destroy our democracy.
Perhaps if we were focused more
on seeking human kindness
we wouldn’t see these darkened days
of stubborn willful blindness.
~Jeannie Cronin
MAYDAY! MADAY! MAYDAY!
Can anyone hear me!?! Over...
This is the USS American Liberty…
We have capsized in the sea of despair...
coordinates...21st century, 45th U.S. President...please send emergency hope, over...
MAYDAY! This is a MAYDAY!
We have but a few short weeks of rationale
before sinking into an uncharted abyss...please respond! Over....
PLEASE! SOMEBODY! MAYDAY!WHERE IS EVERYONE? The fabric of our identity was founded and built and broken and mended again on the frequency of a decent and lawful society, has the country left the whole band to follow one trumpet? Is it......over? Over….
~Jeannie Cronin
Faceless reflection once fair as a flower
is all the eye can see
now ghostly hollow
we choked then swallowed
the darkness we can be
Daunted we are driven still
to find a defining face
forming familiarity’s found
to follow humanity’s trace
Through glassy eyes of tears like rain
our character lines have faded
Let our colors emerge
from our darkest hour
Let us not stay shaded!
Jeannie Cronin
August 31, 2020
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