Ricky Clemons publishes again to honor his Lord

FRANKLIN

A local Christian has been expressing faith in his Lord through poetry. A few weeks ago, Ricky Clemons published “My Path is Jesus,” a collection of 283 poems about walking, talking and acting as a Christian. Titles include “I Didn’t Grow Up Knowing a Lot of Truth,” “God is Ongoing and Non-Stop” and “Give Jesus Some of Your Time.”

“The Lord has been blessing me to do this since I’ve been faithful unto him,” said Clemons of Franklin. “He gave me the talent.”

That ability he dates to around 1995, though before there had been no real aspirations to write. There was once a class assignment, which got a favorable response, but that was about it.

At Capernaum Seventh-day Adventist Church in Suffolk, where he remains a member, he had been asked by a deacon to read some poetry to the congregation.

“The next night,” said Clemons. “I heard a voice telling me, ‘I want you to write.’”

He took up the challenge and has been writing since. This most recent book is his eighth. The one before, “Seasons of My Life,” came out in 2018, and contains 365 poems.

As with so many other people who give their lives and control to their Lord, Clemons’ journey to start walking the straight and narrow was crooked and curved in dangerous ways.

“Some years ago when I was in the military I used some bad drugs. That had caused me to lose my mind. I truly suffered for doing that. My lord and savior Jesus Christ gave me a second chance to believe in him and be saved,” the 60-year-old stated. “He healed my mind with good medicine and renewed my mind for me to write poetry about him.”

Clemons continued, “I do regret using the bad dugs, but I will never regret giving Jesus my life for as long as I live. The devil tried to destroy my life … Jesus Christ didn’t let him succeed in doing that.

“I am so glad to be serving the Lord today. Jesus gives us all a chance to repent and believe in him for as along as we live. When I think about where the Lord brought me from, I can’t keep it all to myself. He is so good to me.”

The inspiration has not been limited to the printed page. One of his poems, “Jesus is Our Savior” was sent to a company in Hollywood that turned it into a song. About a dozen years ago, Clemons was introduced via a mutual acquaintance to singer-songwriter and producer Michael J. Mulholland of North Liberty Recording in Suffolk.

“He [Clemons] wanted to take his poems and make songs out of them. I invited him over and read thousands,” Mulholland recalled. “We sat down and looked to see how can we write a song.”

He then went on to develop a melody, a music track and hired a vocalist; he also sang on a few of them as well. Those poems grew into albums. The one that Mulholland said he’s working on now — “Seasons of My Life” will be about the 10th. More recently, he had produced “Jesus Walked with Me,” which includes the title track, “One True Color” and “Who Can Be More” as well as seven others.

“I’ve seen a real great change in Clemons’ written style,” Mulholland said. “He doesn’t think in musical terms, but wants people to hear them.”

Clemons said, “I just want to inspire everyone to use their talents for the Lord.”

To order any of Clemons’ poetry, go to Amazon.com or contact him at 535-2125. For copies of albums, contact Mulholland at mjm4332@gmail.com or google digital record stores.