A reflective, slow-burning breakup piece about knowing when it’s time to leave. Next Train South captures the moment clarity cuts through, when love lingers, but staying isn’t an option. With honesty and quiet resolve, it tells the story of walking away from what once was, and finally choosing your own direction.

“If You Were Gone” is a tender reflection on love and presence, capturing the small, intimate moments that make a person irreplaceable. From laughter and quirks to shared touches and words of affection, the poem celebrates the everyday details that define deep connection.

This poem and song grew from a late night reflection on struggle, city lights, and the quiet understanding that pain and music often walk together. It’s an invitation to sit with the blues, not as sadness, but as a shared human feeling. I’ve been in those shoes too.

A pocket full of Mondays can weigh you down. This episode traces a week unraveling, hope on Tuesday, heartbreak on Wednesday, regret by Friday. A first-person reflection on love lost, looking back too late, and searching for the strength to face another week.

In this intimate poetry podcast episode, Watching the World Go By invites you to slow down and step outside the noise of everyday life. Through gentle imagery and quiet invitation, the poem drifts from mountaintops to coastal highways, offering a shared escape where time loosens its grip and worry fades into the background.

This is a meditation on companionship, imagination, and the simple freedom of going nowhere in particular. Close your eyes, take the ride, and spend a few moments watching the world go by, one breath, one dream, one grain of sand at a time.

“Valentino” is a tender, cinematic love poem that drifts between the glow of late-night movies and the quiet ache of unspoken devotion. As the narrator watches someone fall for the romance on the screen, they offer something gentler, truer, presence.
“Valentino” is about longing without demands, loving without conditions, and being the steady reality behind every silver-screen fantasy.
A soft, nostalgic piece for anyone who’s ever wished they could be someone’s movie hero, while knowing the real magic is simply being there.

“Old Love” is a poem I wrote about a yearning for something genuine, enduring, and rooted in the heart. Simple yet deeply felt, a reminder that true love doesn’t fade,it deepens with time.

A reflective poem exploring the stories written on our faces, age, experience, joy, pain, and everything in between. This piece invites listeners to look beyond the surface and consider what’s behind every expression. In this episode, I share the poem and dive into the ideas that inspired it, offering thoughts that might resonate with your own experiences.

I See Your Face produced at Horizon Music Studio in Calgary Alberta with great performances by John Thiel on guitars and base, Gary Weiss on drums and Shirl Thiel background vocals.

Poem, music and Vocal by James Kelly