Friday Writings #105: ‘Starry, Starry Night’

Hello again, dear Wordsmiths!

Apologies that I have not been participating here for the last couple of weeks. Perhaps I’ll catch up over the next little while, on your own participation at least, as I do enjoy reading your writings.

As Magaly told you a couple of weeks ago, I was focused on preparing for the launch of my ‘Pentridge trilogy’ (or as some of my friends are calling it, a trifecta!). It started with a memoir, now called Breaking into Pentridge Prison: Memories of Darkness and Light, which many of you were kind enough to read in first draft last year, as a series of blog posts.  In the Acknowledgments in the now-published book, I thank, among others: 

My on-line friends from the blogging community Poets and Storytellers United, who were the first to see any of it, when it was still incomplete, and whose kind and useful comments not only helped me keep going but also showed me what more I needed to include or clarify.

As those of you on Facebook already know, I accompanied this volume with a new edition of Blood from Stone, the prison poetry anthology first published in 1982, and a small chapbook of my own poems, a spin-off from the memoir, Letters to a Dead Man. 

I decided to self-publish. This, of course, requires a lot of extra work!  Anyway, the launch was perfectly lovely – and I’m glad I’ve come out the other side of it. You can read more on my website: www.nissen-wade.com

So, enough about me.

When Rommy asked me last week for a preview of this week’s prompt, I was so caught up in book launch preparations, I confess I had not given it a thought! But I had just been listening to Don McLean singing ‘Starry, Starry Night,’ his lovely song, at once sad and celebratory, about artist Vincent Van Gogh – a favourite of mine (the song or the artist? – both!).

Hence, your optional prompt this week is to be inspired by the song, ‘Starry, Starry Night,’ and/or by Vincent Van Gogh himself. 

You may give us poetry or prose, old or new, 369 words or fewer, one post per person – or you may choose to ignore this prompt and write about something else altogether.

As always, post it to your blog, add the link to that post in Mister Linky below, and do have look at what others are writing and leave whatever encouraging comments you are moved to make.

Next week, Magaly will invite us to write poetry or prose which includes the full title of a book we are reading or plan to read this December.