Daniel Ontengco

The Heresy of Hearsay: One Hundred Poems 2005-2006 Daniel Ontengco

The following collection of poems touches on numerous subjects including perception, religion, power, and love. However, the central theme running through a large amount of the book is the concept of truth and how people come upon it and use it differently. In 1776, Thomas Paine anonymously published a famous pamphlet calling for the American Colonists to revolt against the oppressive British monarchy. His writings galvanized the people of the time. The subsequent American Revolution he helped to inspire led to the creation of the United States and its democracy. A few years later he published another book, but with that text he instead called for a revolt against the oppressive religious institutions of the time. He failed and his book did not have the same effect as his first offering. However, his writings did help to inspire some of the ideas advanced by this book, The Heresy of Hearsay. Through the examination of truth, several of the poems included here attempt to comment on the religious extremism that is tearing apart the world today with violence and intolerance.