Be Thankful

Be thankful for your health,

Be thankful for your family and friends,

Be thankful for you can communicate with the people you love as well as the people you don't.

Be thankful for the stuff you do and the stuff others do for you.

Be thankful that you are loved and cherished by all who know you.

#BeNoteWorthy

#piccadillyinc

Nothing

When I say nothing but scars are left I'm not saying it out of spite, believe me. I wish something good stayed, something I hold on to for the rest of my life saying, "I've tasted the ambrosia straight from the highest heights I won't settle for less". I wish the memories I have would keep me satisfied even in the times when you and I are just not meant to be. But all you left with me is a sharp sense of danger, a filter to see through empty promises, a burning scale to weigh a character and a veteran heart that's not swayed by soft eyes like yours.

Little Richard

Peter Balakian

On a walk past bulldozers and trucks pouring tarmac for the NJ Eisenhower highway my grandmother said to me as we turned into a market with olive barrels, hanging  meat, piles of sumac and coriander— “he shakes away my blues.” It was 1959, and what did I know about starving   in the Syrian desert or the Turkish whips  that lashed the bodies of Armenian  women on the roads of dust. I wouldn’t  have believed that she saw  those things. The radio  was always on the sink in my grandmother’s  kitchen. “He’s a whirling dervish” she said— whirling dervish—the whoosh of the phrase  stayed with me. I too felt his trance— even then—as she pounded spices with a brass mortar and pestle. The air on fire under him the red clay of Macon dusting his bones. What did I know about Sufism  Sister Rosetta or bird feet at the Royal Peacock? In the yard the bittersweet is drying up, the berries turning gold and red. The way memory deepens with light.  His shaking gospel voice. The heart going up in flames. My grandmother survived the worst that humans do.

Copyright © 2022 by Peter Balakian

The Understudy

Hieu Minh Nguyen Even in California all of my friends require touch to get through winter. It’s true, I am waiting to be in love in front of the people I love. He says, I’m glad you’re here & I want to cover his mouth to warm my hands. Of course I understand how one would mistake that earthquake for a passing train but what do we do with the stillness when after great change nothing moves, but his hand sliding a glass of wine across the table instructing me to drink with a single nod. I bring the glass to my face but don’t let a drop pass my lips. Beside him, I am almost somewhere I’d like to be for a while. To make him smile I tell him I am bad at sex. To make him kiss me I tell him when I’m happy I go looking for things I haven’t lost yet.

Light

Light of my angel,

Light of my star,

Light that creates ideas from so far,

Lights of all people,

Lights here and far,

Lights may be harmonious and glad.

#BeNoteWorthy

#piccadillyinc 

Blessings

Blessings come and blessings go,

Blessings are for life.

Blessings are for our entire family,

As they too have blessings for you,

Which I provide to my utmost and studios guests.

#piccadillyinc 

Hold on...

Melanie Moses February 2020

No matter what you are going through

Or for how long

There's a light at the end of the tunnel

Just hold on.

Some are challenges we need to face

Others opportunities to take place

Whilst changing tracks within life's song

Keep going and don't look back

When you experience a bumpy ride

Know it will subside

As change is constant like the wind

Untamed and free

And nothing last forever

It's a contrast we will all see

Relish the good times

Let go of the bad

Blaze a new teail

With a clear vision in your mind

The holy grail

Where you leave what's past behind

And shadows fade away

Enjoy the journey and the scenery into the light of day.