Author Archives: Justin Farley

Can I Tell You A Secret Love Poem About Intimacy

Posted on by under Poetry 
Can I Tell You A Secret?
A Love Poem About Intimacy

If I tell you a secret can you keep it
locked like jewels in a treasure chest
buried beneath the "x" of your breast?

If I tell you a secret can you keep it
off your lips and not let it
poison the passion of your kiss?

Secrets are for lovers, but my secret uncovers
the man behind the mask.
Iron rusts, crumbles into dust, my shell becomes fragile glass.

If I tell you a secret can you keep it
private in your pocket, protected with loving care?
If I strip before you, will you accept me naked and bare?

If I tell you a secret will you leave it
behind if you decide to walk out the door,
put it in the drawer and promise not to speak of it anymore?

If I tell you a secret can you keep it?
Don't you know dear, secrets are for lovers?
I offer all of myself for you to discover.

Justin Farley

Hello, everyone! I have recently published my first chapbook of Christian poems titled “A Voice in the Wilderness – A Chapbook of Poems about God”. This has been developed and polished over the past six months or so. I am happy with the final product and hope you find encouragement in the poems but also a validation that the spiritual life is not all sunshine and rainbows. We all struggle. We all have periods of questions and/or doubt. But it is the yearning that keeps us coming back for more and allows us to experience joy.
You can purchase either on Amazon or on my own bookstore (it is cheaper and has free shipping on my store) and is available on the Kindle and in paperback.
Amazon: Kindle Paperback
Inkspiration Books (my bookstore): Paperback
Thank you for your support!

Metamorphosis A Poem About Butterflies and God’s Grace

Posted on by under Poems On Nature, Poetry, Spirituality 
Metamorphosis 
A Poem About Butterflies and God's Grace

Inching along the earth
crunching, munching on misfortune
until pain wrapped itself like a cocoon -
a castle outside the rooms of a hardened heart.

Drowning, surely dying in the dark.
Only to emerge from the womb
reborn from a tomb of self-inflicted wounds
transformed by the Divine spark.

With wings of vibrant color
carrying the evidence of change 
arrayed like a roadmap
dotted with places been
and places going.

Flapping with the wings of grace
embraced by the breeze of blessing
a chrysalis replaced,
made anew by the Spirit's pressing. 

Justin Farley

Climbing Mountains Poem About Living Out Your Dreams

Posted on by under Poetry 
Climbing Mountains
A Poem About Living Out Your Dreams and Believing in Yourself

The road rose in the distance
insistent on wrapping around
the towering mountain like twine.
At its feet stood a shrine
dedicated to the drowsy dreamer,
the tired thinker, the sleepy schemer
who had journeyed all this way
only to have disbelief poison the mind.

And yet doubt wasn't left behind
in even the faithful and courageous traveler
who had begun the climb.
For the apex stood painfully high;
the road wound for miles
surrounded by ledges where dreams fall and die.

Victory is only tasted
by the dreamer who doesn't look back
and doesn't get offtrack
by looking too far forward.
But who is purposeful in their impact
right here, right now
perfectly content in the present moment.
One step after another
feeling the ground beneath their feet,
faithfully carrying their dream on their shoulders
until their vision is realized and complete.

The future is only actualized
by those who realized eons ago
that the future is bound by
the way we carry ourselves in the present.
It's what we learn during the ascent
that makes the climb worth doing;
never in the need for recognition and achievement.

Wake up, you drowsy dreamer!
Rouse yourself from your delusions!
Shake yourself from the critics illusions
and the conclusion that you'll never find your way!
For the journey begins and ends
the way we begin and close each day.

Justin Farley

They Say…

Posted on by under Poetry, Spirituality 
They Say...

They say follow your heart,
but I'm thoroughly convinced
mine doesn't know where
the hell it's going.

They say the heart wants
what the heart wants.
Mine wants to pull down the shades
and get rip-roaring drunk.

They say love yourself.
I think if I love myself any more
I'm going to join Narcissus
at the bottom of that damn pool.

They say put yourself first,
but I'm so far in the lead
that there's no one left
for me to pass.

But He says 
I'm broken beyond belief,
that my heart is deceptive,
and can't be trusted.

He says that only fools
follow the desires of the heart
because they lead to
bottomless pits, never satisfied.

He says quit staring
at yourself in that mirror,
that my hope isn't found in self love,
it's in the depth of His love.

He says the first shall be last
and to love my neighbor as myself,
to help pick up the wounded runners
rather than worry about what place I finish in.

I love my heart,
which is why it's so painful to admit
that His Word sounds like truth,
and culture sounds like childish chatter.

Justin Farley

Planting is a Prayer Poem

Posted on by under Poems On Nature, Poetry, Spirituality 
Planting is a Prayer

Planting is a prayer.
If you do it right.
If you take delight in the present
but keep future possibility in sight.

For God doesn't need words.
With each heart beat
you lay at his feet
a million complaints, hopes, fears,
doubts, joys, and defeats.

A creator knows its creation
better than the creation itself.
Your ink filled his pen.
He outlines your story, your end
before it evens begins
but allows you freewill 
over the final edits.

Planting is a prayer.
If you do it right.
If you're aware you've been given oversight
in a chapter of a story
that's been continually expanding
since the Word first spoke to the void:

"Let there be light".
Let you delight
in the blessing you've been given - 
partial control over the story of life.

Justin Farley

Sowing Poem About Embracing Yourself and Individuality

Posted on by under Poems On Nature, Poetry 
Sowing

To harvest you must first sow,
or you'll end up in a fall
standing in a field of weeds
regretting doing nothing with the seeds
you held in spring.

Change comes slowly,
rarely over night.
Take delight in cultivating
your corner of beauty in the world.
For no other garden contains
the species of flowers you grow.

So sow.
Sow what you know.
Sow the seeds that make you want
to take root and reach up to drink the sun.
But whatever you do,
sow.

Justin Farley