How many would be smothered in their cribs
to interrupt their trajectories?
How many would be unburned at the stake?
How many would be unhanging from trees?
How many innocent souls would be unraped?
Imagining a convoy of Chrononauts on the move
Better than Ghostbusters, interrupting evil in its tracks;
Confiscating kindling, ropes, and demonic intent
To disintegrate them in vacuum incinerator of space.
Passionate to neutralize shadow ripples, hurtling
through all times and places. Addicted in the best
of ways to see expressions of relief and peace
upon still living, unsullied faces.
I can hear you now, “You can’t do that. Shadow
must share existence with light. Humans mimic as
the ways of things deem, and, by God, does right.”
Instead, I say, let Nature, without human assistance,
dapple brocade of roses and fields of golden wheat,
bring frost and decay in season, then to rise in spring.
Humans must no longer play ordained mimic in all
of their malicious machinations upon bodies, hearts,
souls, and planetary homes.
Shall Chrononauts be catalogued as humans, then,
or as Nature’s Emissaries restoring balance of light?
Today I today’s host of dVerse’ Poetics. I say:
Choose one of 3 options on the topic of time travel. I chose Option 1.
Tao Talk 
Your time travel has a steampunk feel to it, Lisa. I love the thought of ‘a convoy of Chrononauts on the move / Better than Ghostbusters, interrupting evil in its tracks’ and Nature, without human assistance, dappling ‘brocade of roses and fields of golden wheat’.
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Kim, thank you very much. In the AI creation box, I put Android Time Travelers and that’s what it came up with. I agree, I think the image fits the story.
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I used AI for my too, but specified that it should be a painting in the style of Rembrandt
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Cool. I might try mine again and have it be in the style of van Gogh or Kahlo :)
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I can really see that happening if we ever were able to do that, also imagine them going back in time to assasinate the ones who would grow up to do evil.
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Bjorn, I’m glad you can see it also.
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“Passionate to neutralize shadow ripples, hurtling
through all times and places. Addicted in the best
of ways to see expressions of relief and peace
upon still living, unsullied faces.”
I could be addicted to this. Love these.
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Me too, Melissa <3 Thank you.
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“Humans must no longer play ordained mimic in all of their malicious machinations upon bodies, hearts, souls, and planetary homes.” oh yes, absolutely! This is gorgeously rendered, Lisa! 💖💖
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Sanaa, thank you very much, and glad you agree <3
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your poem got me to thinking about the film the butterfly effect.
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Thanks, Rog. I saw that a long time ago and remember liking it. Isn’t Bruce Willis in it? He’ made some good movies over the years! The idea of even the slightest tweak on the past having tsunami effects in the now and possible future is terrifying isn’t it.
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it is aa very scarry concept indeed
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Reverberationally sensational, Lisa! Thanks for the mindwarp prompt!
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Welcome, Ron. So happy the prompt resonates with you! Heading over to poetry trail right now to read your offering.
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Food for thought here Lisa!
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Carol, thank you.
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Wonderful storytelling and a powerful message. As much as I’m with the objectors who argue that things mustn’t be changed, I can see where the argument for the chrononauts changing humanity’s course so that we are no longer puppets but players in the grand stage comes from. Very thought provoking stuff.
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OP, thank you and I think it’s at least worth considering.
Also, I think I commented to you as OG instead of OP at your poem. My apologies. If I could get in the time machine to fix it I would ;)
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Ha ha 😂 No problem. Some people call me OP (Ordinary Person), one insists on OD (Ordinary Dude) and I’m fine with OG (Ordinary Guy) 😂
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:)
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As I said in my comment on Jane’s post, I don’t think we can or should dwell on/in the past. I’ve made some huge mistakes and done a lot of wrong over the years, but changing any of it would also erase the good things in my life. Everything is connected and so intertwined that you can’t just take one thread in isolation. And who are we to judge? Nothing is pure, uncontaminated. Who would decide? (K)
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All good ponderings, wonderings, and questions, Kerfe. Maybe nothing and nobody currently exists that could. But, maybe at some point they might?
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I don’t think I want to live in that world. We need to learn to focus on what we can do now–and there’s quite a bit, if we have the will for it.
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Big If that doesn’t seem to be materializing, for a lot of different reasons.
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I saw above you mentioned AI…no! I don’t believe AI is going to save the world. AI is not a god either–it’s as fallible as the humans who programmed it. And by the way where are all those deities with the power to make the changes we need? the ones that supposedly love the world and humanity so much?
It all goes back to–who would decide? And how would they decide what to change and which lives would be eliminated by the changes? Because you can’t change something in the past without killing off those who descended from that past.
It is a big If. But not impossible. If we choose not to change, we will suffer the consequences. Our choice. Expecting some magic technology to make up for us not doing the work, not actually making the changes we need to make, is wishful thinking. And lazy.
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I can’t and won’t argue about it one way or another. It’s already draining and demoralizing to exist within its reality. There is plenty enough wishful thinking to go around to all camps. Humans are lazy and there is no sense of urgency that I see being demonstrated to get us off of the extinction trajectory. In my old job I used to do what I could to help the juveniles and their parents and felt the urgency, but when the rest of the system did not and acted in the same tired, ineffectual ways, over time I became jaded. I’ve reached that point with humankind as a whole.
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I didn’t really mean to get into an argument with you. I seem to be argumentative of late, not sure why.
I agree that we are lazy and probably beyond help. It’s definitely demoralizing. At the same time there are people that give me hope, that haven’t given up, that keep working towards making things better. They are what inspire me to do at least the little I do.
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I know and it really wasn’t an argument. I get frustrated because it seems like I’ve hashed these things over in my mind so many times with no acceptable conclusion so I’m looking for other ways to get out of it. Yes there are people fighting with everything they have to save us and that is saying something in humankind’s favor.
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Me too. I am perpetually arguing with myself. It spills out sometimes in frustration.
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Younger son and I got into it last night and both immediately regretted it. I apologized and he did also after about a half hour. Age brings a lot of aches and pains but it also brings an appreciation of what/who matters <3
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Well written, Lisa. It would be great to be able to reverse all the atrocities that have be done to our fellow human beings! Seems we never learn and keep doing it all over again.
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I know! Maybe if we took out some of those key evil elements, over time, the vicious cycles would end.
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You are very right about that.
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What a great idea poetically expressed Lisa – I could make a little list for Nature’s Emissaries to tackle…
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Andrew, thank you very much. I’m sure each of could make one of those lists.
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A convoy of Chrononauts may just be the erasure humany dignity needs
Much🖤live
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Thanks, Gillena. Just re-read your TMBL and love where it took you. Would like that also :)
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A wonderful prompt, and love the idea of a set of time traveling cops to stop atrocities and violence
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Thank you, Sadje. I think there will need to be a whole corps of teams.
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Yes, numerous
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But who would decide what was wicked and what was good? Go back a few hundred years and the concensus was that witches deserved to be burnt or hanged, we believed in the Divine Right of kings, that women were an inferior branch of the species, that blasphemy was a capital offence (still do in some countries), the Russian and French Revolutions were in response to the appalling treatment of the vast majority of the people. We can’t even agree about capital punishment or abortion rights, and look at the democratically elected leaders we have. It’s never a question of ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. It’s usually expediency, tradition, and keeping the powerful in power.
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“keeping the powerful in power” is how *they* have decided. There are certain crimes that are inherently evil, no matter what or by whose rationale. Murder, rape, terrorism, and I would add a few more, like wanton destruction of the environment and factory farming. It would be tough enough to make the decrees but even tougher to enforce, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. I do believe people know what’s essentially evil but when it profits them and they have their protections, they just don’t care.
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One person’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter. One person’s rape victim is another’s slut. Murder is fine in certain circumstances according to all religions. Yes, I agree, that I would consider them evil, but there’s far from a consensus of opinion on any of them. I believe it’s a woman’s right to choose if she wants to keep an embryo, and I don’t think capital punishment has a place in a civilised society, but I bet within this small group there will be wide divergences of opinion on both of those. We as individuals can fight to change laws or fight to keep laws in our own constituencies, but I don’t think we can impose our notions of good and evil on people in different countries, in different times, with totally different opinions.
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We’re doomed in that case. I think it is worth a try. It might just stave off our extinction for a little while, but couldn’t we just try and see what happens?
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But try what? Look at Hamas. They (in my opinion) and murdering terrorists. Ask any Muslim and they’ll just say the Jews deserve it, and they’re fighting for freedom. The Taliban were fighting for freedom against the Russians so we supported them. Now look at Afghanistan. Where do we step in, and what gives our opinions more worth than theirs? I wish I could see a way.
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Jane I hope we can get there with the help of AI and/or ET intervention. Humans can’t do it alone, or should I say choose not to do it. Yes, I know I sound like a lunatic right now but I don’t care.
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No, not a lunatic, like someone who cares. But starting at home with the simple things like abortion, when opinions diverge at 180°, how do you impose your view, and what gives you the right?.
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Good question, Jane. The reality is there is a “this” for every “that.” Using your example of abortion, yes, it is an ethical dilemma because it can be considered murdering a human, no matter how small or undeveloped. It’s also an ethical dilemma that human population is growing beyond the planet’s capacity to carry it without terminal harm to its continued existence. Will there ever be an “imposed right” that can force someone to choose one or the other without a sizeable % of the population screaming bloody murder? I would say no, under the current circumstances. What I’m hoping for is some earth-shaking injection of an X Factor that can shift things to a place where most will be able to see the sense in keeping our home from becoming a sterile, toxic wasteland. Other than that I’m rolling along day by day as best as I can.
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I think that self-interest is the only thing that will change anything. That at least is a common factor to all of us. When the super rich owners of the multinationals that decide what happens to this planet (because it’s not going to be any elected representatives) make up their minds that they can make just as much money doing something that won’t destroy the planet, then and only then, will we stop the rot. Human cupidity and baseness is such that I’m reasonably optimistic.
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I love the idea of passive intervention in the past: not the undoing, but the prevention.
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I do also, Alexandra. Take one out to save millions. Maybe, instead of the smother in the crib, do an 6-week abortion. Even less harm, but oh the benefits.
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This is wildly imaginative and fun, Lisa. I call these Chrononauts angels of life.
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Brendan, thank you. Good name for them. Maybe we should add some wings to them? Bjorn already gave me one tip to give the AI image generator. I’ll add wings also and see what turns up.
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What good questions and a wonderfully perfect world. Creative work, Lisa.
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Bill, I feel I have to start stepping out of the box if I hope to find some light that will save our planet.
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So beautiful post 🌹🌹
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