Category Archives: Poetry

New Collection of Poems “Nature’s Bounty” Now Available

Posted on by under Books, Poems On Nature, Poetry, Spirituality
Back Cover
Front Cover

I am excited to announce that my latest chapbook of poetry is now available on Amazon in both kindle and paperback formats. These poems have gone through many edits, and I’ve invested lots of time in them. They are centered around my love for nature and also the wisdom we can learn from it. While it isn’t nearly as spiritually centered as my first book, “A Voice in the Wilderness”, there still are themes of God within it – but very general themes; I wanted this to be a collection that almost everyone could enjoy.

While not necessarily a “full” collection, I feel my poems still have more “meat” than a lot of the popular “full” collections of poetry today, consisting of only one or two lines per page. My stanzas could certainly be read that way, but most of my poems are about a page, and a few that are more than that. I only say this to assure readers that the chapbook still has quite a bit of content.

Summary- “Justin Farley’s second chapbook is a collection of poems about nature. Starting in his early childhood, the woods have been a teacher and source of beauty, exploration, adventure, and love. “Nature’s Bounty” is the accumulation of a lifetime of wisdom gained from exploring nature and observing the lessons nature teaches us. This nature poetry collection will reach the hearts and minds of hikers, bird watchers, campers, naturalists, and all those who hold the rivers, lakes, mountains, animals and forests in high esteem. Contains poems on subjects such as birds, animals, the spiritual aspect of nature, gardening, flowers, trees, hiking in the woods, etc.”

I am happy and grateful to share this with you and hope you enjoy it 🙂

Feathers A Christian Poem About Letting Go of Fear and Worry

Posted on by under Mental Health, Poems On Nature, Poetry 
Feathers

The weight of the world
is a feather in the hand of its maker.
It does not burden, break, or bury
the one who reigns outside of Time and Space's domain.

Our behemoths are merely single barbs
attached to that weightless shaft 
that flutters like the forest's souvenirs
given to a child, fallen from the wings of a jay.

In his hand our juggernauts 
are not threats but specimen.
His palm is large enough
to hold worry ad infinitum.

Push the crushing fear
off your chest and rest,
knowing that it's but a harmless feather
fluttering in your father's hand.

Justin Farley

Summertime Poem

Posted on by under Poetry 
Summertime

Clementine nectar drips down the chin.
Summertime angels swim through the air again.
The crack of a bat under the lights.
Kaleidoscope fire explodes in the night.
Root beer floats, cotton candy dreams.
Capture the flag on neighborhood teams.
July heat brings sprinklers and hoses to cool;
lounging on rafts, diving in pools.
Wading in creek beds catching crawdads.
Camping trips beneath the stars, just you and Dad. 
Carnival laughter, Ferris wheel turns.
Days on the lake, nights nursing sunburns.
Tan bodies gleaming in the moonlight,
entangled in adolescences' sacrificial rite.
All good things must come to a close.
First, comes summer jobs; then, parental woes.

Justin Farley

Poem about the Power of Words and Poetry

Posted on by under Poetry 
Words are a Holy Fire

Words surged from the pen
staining, soaking everything like spilled paint.
Wood pulp thirsty in a state
of mad-eyed hunger.
Paper ravenous for a glorious taste,
elated to gobble up and digest
the things that time can't erase.

Don't you know?
Words are a Holy Fire,
spread from the Word himself.
Infused with the power of desire
to transform, to turn over the world upon itself.
To burn away the dead timber,
embers eager to make way for the new.
On its charred remains,
plant shoots come bursting through.

Oh, yes listen; I tell it true!
Words are a Holy Fire
with more power than the doers who do.
For they are not forgotten by the fragility of memory
but cling to time like glue.

Justin Farley

My first chapbook of collected poems is available now! I 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!

Light Wielder Poem About Bringing the Kingdom of Heaven to Earth

Posted on by under Poetry, Spirituality 
Light Wielder

Crystals hang from the heavenly chandelier
on the city upon the hill.
Catching light and doing for the eyes
what wind chimes do for the ears.

     A rustling.
     An awakening
     of an ancient force
     that remembers,
     that yearns
     with an unquenchable thirst
     for transcendence
     for totality
     for unity
     for eternity.

Crystals catch the sun's light,
act like mirrors with the power
of those at the Pharos lighthouse,
and reflect it to the ends of the earth.
Never giving birth to work
by its own power,
only transmitting a greater light
whose flame has burned
indefatigable to the chagrin of the night.

Again.

     A rustling.
     An awakening
     of an ancient force
     that remembers,
     that yearns
     with an unquenchable thirst
     for transcendence
     for totality
     for unity
     for eternity.

I count
hundreds
thousands
millions
of crystals dangling like diamonds,
gleaming beneath the sun.
Dazzling like the thread
of the spider's web she's spun
catching the nightmares of the world
like colossal dream catchers,
waking up those who've fallen asleep,
and giving sight to a world walking in darkness.

Justin Farley

The Chair Poem About Grief Death Dying

Posted on by under Poetry 
The Chair
Poem about Losing a Spouse

The sun woke, stretched, streamed
upon an early, April mourning.
Birds arrived at the feeder chirping.
I watched, sipping my steaming coffee.
For a minuscule moment distracted
until I noticed the chair
out of the corner of my eye
still indented with your body's footprint.
And I thought of you.

Justin Farley

The Town Mouse and Country Mouse Love Poem

Posted on by under Poetry 
The Town Mouse and Country Mouse

I was in love with the country,
and she, in love with the city.
We were in love with each other
but were split by the hand of destiny.

She preferred nights on the town
and I, counting country stars.
We woke up side-by-side each morning,
yet the distance between our lives was far.

For what did I know about hailing taxis?
Or her, about forest pines?
Though we surely knew each other's hearts,
our paths were never aligned.

I was alone with the country
and she, alone with the city.
In love but living separate lives
inevitably led to tragedy.

Justin Farley

Seaing A Poem

Posted on by under Poems On Nature, Poetry 
See the sky like a sea
rolling with crescent waves
crash into the dawn of day.
Aurora's tide making the darkness flee.

See the puffy islands of white
float like buoys in
a no-wake zone 
emerge behind the curtains of night.

See the winged fish swimming
through waters with ease
chasing one another in schools,
excitement for life brimming.

See the metal monsters - 
winged, roaring leviathans who
lurk in the sky's deep
who roams, constantly wanders. 

See the hungry shark with razor teeth
chomp on desires of the heart.
Set on selfish destruction
swimming in the depths beneath.

Justin Farley

An Outstretched Hand Poem About God’s Grace

Posted on by under Poetry, Spirituality 
An Outstretched Hand

Grace waits patiently for everyone
like Charon beside the River Styx.
But Grace requires no coinage
for sin's payment has been nixed.
The sound of a boulder's rumble,
louder to the soul than deafening thunder,
is the receipt for the cost of transgression, paid in full.
It leaves even angels still in wonder
at the depth of love that bears such a brutal toll.
Grace holds her breath with an outstretched hand, 
the pinnacle choice of life for every man.
Grace's hand is still open to you.
Will you take it?

Justin Farley