A Smear of Darkness

The volume, A SMEAR OF DARKNESS, is a collection of prose with a touch of poetry, endeavoring to give the reader access to the innermost thoughts and emotional life of a man in his fortieth year of incarceration in prison in the United States. This book encompasses a time when the author had just lost his family and when his hopes for release were repeatedly dashed. PAROLE DENIED! He wrote: "Someone told me-two persons actually-that because of an 'incident' with an inmate that their friends will not write to inmates. I wondered aloud if they had ever had an incident with a free person." In this volume, A Smear of Darkness, Nyberg communicates his prison-life emotions: the confusion, the despair, the tyranny of hope, and the struggle to remain inwardly and physically alive. He wrote: "Today is my parole hearing. No, of course I do not get to say anything. Florida does not believe that what a prisoner has to say has any place in the parole process." Here is the opportunity to follow the advice of Johnny Carson and "walk a mile under the camel" of a man who is spent more than forty-five years in prison and "see what rains down upon him." This collection gives a glimpse into the soul of a person condemned to a life in prison. He wrote: "My dad died today. I guess I am allowed to be sad. But it doesn't matter-I am sad anyway."