“If instead of a gem, or even a flower, we should cast the gift of a loving thought into the heart of a friend, that would be giving as the angels give.” – George MacDonald

“The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to become visible.”- Vladimir Nabakov

“And in December’s gloomy shades some Chickweed stars did shine. One Daisy, too, the bleak month gave to baffle melancholy; and e’en I saw fair Flora smile when crowned with crimson Holly and then the queen of all the flowers passed onward, soft and slow— her radiant brows adorned with pearls of sacred mistletoe!” – James Digg

“I know that I shall meet my fate somewhere among the clouds above; those that I fight I do not hate, those that I guard I do not love.” – W.B. Yeats

“It is only when we silent the blaring sounds of our daily existence that we can finally hear the whispers of truth that life reveals to us, as it stands knocking on the doorsteps of our hearts.” – K.T. Jong

“There are no sounds that can stir the sublime emotions of men’s souls like the sighs and whispers of nature.” – James Lendall Basford

Hello everyone and welcome to another exciting week at Prompt Nights. We are nearing the end of  2016; a year which marked the birth of this humble platform. My heartfelt gratitude goes out to each and every one of you for your love and utmost dedication, it has been a pleasure writing alongside of you? We will be having a holiday break from 16th – 31st December due to Christmas and New Year celebrations. Prompt Nights will be back with a bang on 6th January 2017, with a one year celebratory prompt? Tonight, I want you guys to pen down birthday wishes, as mine falls on Sunday 11th December. I’ll be looking forward to reading and will cherish anything that you guys have to offer. For further inspiration please refer to the three amazing poems below:

A Birthday

by Christina Georgina Rossetti

My heart is like a singing bird
Whose nest is in a water’d shoot;
My heart is like an apple-tree
Whose boughs are bent with thickset fruit;
My heart is like a rainbow shell
That paddles in a halcyon sea;
My heart is gladder than all these
Because my love is come to me.

Raise me a dais of silk and down;
Hang it with vair and purple dyes;
Carve it in doves and pomegranates,
And peacocks with a hundred eyes;
Work it in gold and silver grapes,
In leaves and silver fleurs-de-lys;
Because the birthday of my life
Is come, my love is come to me.

A Birthday Song

by Sidney Lanier

For ever wave, for ever float and shine
Before my yearning eyes, oh! dream of mine
Wherein I dreamed that time was like a vine,

A creeping rose, that clomb a height of dread
Out of the sea of Birth, all filled with dead,
Up to the brilliant cloud of Death o’erhead.

This vine bore many blossoms, which were years.
Their petals, red with joy, or bleached by tears,
Waved to and fro i’ the winds of hopes and fears.

Here all men clung, each hanging by his spray.
Anon, one dropped; his neighbor ‘gan to pray;
And so they clung and dropped and prayed, alway.

But I did mark one lately-opened bloom,
Wherefrom arose a visible perfume
That wrapped me in a cloud of dainty gloom.

And rose — an odor by a spirit haunted —
And drew me upward with a speed enchanted,
Swift floating, by wild sea or sky undaunted,

Straight through the cloud of death, where men are free.
I gained a height, and stayed and bent my knee.
Then glowed my cloud, and broke and unveiled thee.

“O flower-born and flower-souled!” I said,
“Be the year-bloom that breathed thee ever red,
Nor wither, yellow, down among the dead.

“May all that cling to sprays of time, like me,
Be sweetly wafted over sky and sea
By rose-breaths shrining maidens like to thee!”

Then while we sat upon the height afar
Came twilight, like a lover late from war,
With soft winds fluting to his evening star.

And the shy stars grew bold and scattered gold,
And chanting voices ancient secrets told,
And an acclaim of angels earthward rolled.

A Birthday Gift

by Robert Fuller Murray

No gift I bring but worship, and the love
Which all must bear to lovely souls and pure,
Those lights, that, when all else is dark, endure;
Stars in the night, to lift our eyes above;

To lift our eyes and hearts, and make us move
Less doubtful, though our journey be obscure,
Less fearful of its ending, being sure
That they watch over us, where’er we rove.

And though my gift itself have little worth,
Yet worth it gains from her to whom `tis given,
As a weak flower gets colour from the sun.
Or rather, as when angels walk the earth,
All things they look on take the look of heaven –
For of those blessed angels thou art one.

So pick up a pen and lets begin! As always the prompt will remain open the entire week so that everyone can write according to their own pace and time. Please click on the blue widget below. When it opens be sure to click on “add your link.” Now skip the blanks and proceed directly to “try here” written at the end in small font. It will direct you on how to link your poem. Please visit other Poets and do comment on their poems. Have fun ❤️