The Heresy of Hearsay
One Hundred Poems 2005-2006
by
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To Save the World
I want to try and save the world.
Before it destroys itself with infighting and war.
Where each group or nation has its own truth and religion.
That they use unsparingly to justify their own reasons for killing.
Freethinkers that offer any dissenting views of their truth.
Are often chastised and threatened until their voices are made silent too.
When the independence of thinking is labeled as falsehood and heresy.
Hearsay is then taken as unquestioned fact leading then to injustice and bigotry.
Every day around the world there is this cruel kind of intolerant insanity.
Who can not help but want to further enlighten humanity to this terrible calamity.
And point out what we already all know but through hatred and malice refuse to show.
That we all deserve peaceful liberty and the freedom to believe what we know.
I want to save the world, to allow it to question and not fear to offend.
Where all of Earth’s children embrace, so that we can then begin to mend.
I want to try to save the world by helping it to heal.
Nursing wounds and throwing my arms around all the people.
To protect each and every one of them from all that is evil.
From that which has been created or from that which is not real.
In the world of right now as it was in the world of then.
There is much bloodshed for hearsay, using the name of God to justify the end.
Countless cries of heresy urging destruction or irrelevance for those who don’t believe.
Echo through the narrow minds of those who should be filled with benevolence.
In the world that I would like to see one day be.
Goodness and compassion would supersede any differences of mankind.
And conversation and tolerance would unite the world’s people as religion blind.
Where just because we do not agree doesn’t mean that you kill me.
And for this, I still want to save the world.
Before it stumbles and falls on its sword.
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About the Book
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.
About the Author
I have a Master of Public Administration degree from the University of South Florida as well as a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and Sociology. I am currently a civil servant with state government and primarily deal with investigating child abuse and neglect cases. My work in this field has exposed me to both the very worst and best of human nature.
This is my second offering of poems after having published the 2005 book, Portrait of a View.