Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Ricky Clemons, of Franklin, has a passion for expressing his faith in and love for Jesus Christ through poetry, and he recently released a new book of inspirational poems titled “From My Heart.”

Clemons has been writing poetry since 1995, and he has written as many as 15 books since 2004.

Explaining what inspired him to produce his latest effort, he said, “I want people to see that I am transparent. I love writing poetry, and I love sharing it with others. Hopefully they will be able to relate to what I write, and hopefully it will bless their lives.”

He noted that he shares the gospel of Jesus Christ in his poetry.

“My poetry is about God’s love, truth, judgment, mercy and grace,” he said. “I lay up my treasures in heaven and not in this world that will one day pass away. I don’t want to pass away with it, and I hope that you don’t want to pass away with this old, sinful world.”

Clemons shared his personal story of how he came to be a poet for Jesus, pointing out that there were some challenging situations that led up to it.

“When I was 18 years old and graduated from Suffolk High School, I joined the Army,” he said. “I got caught up in using illegal drugs, and it caused me to have a nervous breakdown.

“I was all broken up in so much disappointment that I brought upon myself,” he said.

When he went back home to live with his mother, stepfather and two younger sisters, he watched them go to church every Saturday morning.

“I finally got the nerve to go with them to church, where I was gladly accepted,” he said.

As time went on, he said that he was called on by a deacon in church to read a poem.

“The same night, the Lord spoke to me to write a poem,” Clemons said. “I had no idea that the Lord gave me the gift to write poems about Him. That was the beginning of my Christian journey to work for the Lord.”

But Clemons said that before all that happened, he had asked the Lord to help him feel the frustration, stress and emotional pain that other people feel, giving him an ability to understand and relate to them, helping him to more effectively reach them for Christ.

“The Lord has blessed me to write books of poetry for some years,” Clemons said. “I thank the Lord that my books have made some sales over the years.” 

He also said that the Lord has blessed many of his poems to be produced into gospel songs.

“Some of my songs have been aired on some radio stations,” he said.

For people who read his latest book, “From My Heart,” Clemons shared what he hopes they will gain from the experience.

“I hope that they would want to seek and search out the Lord for themselves by reading the Bible and going to church and just praying unto the Lord and believing that whatever they’re going through in their lives, he can help them to get through it,” he said.

The book is available now at Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com.

“Since 1995, I’ve been writing poetry about my Lord Jesus Christ, who I will never get tired of writing poetry about,” Clemons said. “Jesus is worthy of all of my glory and praise unto Him.”