Sylvia Forges-Ryan
Born in 1937 in New York, New York
Current Residence, North Haven, CT.
From 1991 through 1993 I was the Editor of Frogpond. I am the author of Take a Deep Breath, published in hardcover by Kodansha International in 2002, with a Russian edition published by Sophia Press in Kiev, and a paperback edition published by Apocryphile Press in 2006. My new book is What Light There Is, published by Red Moon Press in 2016. Both books have been selected for permanent inclusion in the American Section of the Beinicke Rare Book Library at Yale University.
All the poems presented here are published in What Light There Is.
So much in love
she hardly needs
to see him
R. H. Blyth Award, World Haiku Review, 2006
How easy
to fall in love with
a perfect stranger
Having been with his lover
how tender he is
with his wife
Another year ends
searching the Web for you
for auld lang syne
Biopsy report
the nurse breezes in
with questionable cheer
How to explain it
this unexpected tenderness
for my aging body
Taking the only thing
she could to her grave---
family secrets
Her memory going
she gossips to me
about me
Ten times ten thousand
terrible things in this world
and still I don't want to leave it
With a stamp and a snap
she strikes a defiant pose
the flamenco dancer
Town council wisdom
replacing the historic town hall
with a faux new one
Waiting to bat
the hitter swats
a swarm of gnats
Blind date
while helping with her coat
he checks out the label
Divorce proceedings
a slight shift
along the fault lines
Equal custody
their child says
she's always missing someone
Nothing like the holidays
for renewing
old grievances
My neighbor's offended
she and our new dog
have the same name
So large in my mind
so small when I return
the house of my childhood
Rereading the Iliad
another corpse dragged
through Fallujah
(Grand Prix Prize, Kyoto Museum for World Peace, 2005)
Politicians' lies
police and military torture
what else isn't news
Deep into winter
writing poems I can share
with no one
( Robert Frost Key West Poetry Prize, 2014)