Take a Deep Breath: The Haiku Way to Inner Peace

What happens when one of America's best-known haiku poets joins forces with her psychologist husband to write a book? The answer: Take a Deep Breath: The Haiku Way to Inner Peace -- a unique collection of guided meditations, drawn from and experienced through the appreciation of haiku.

Sylvia Forges-Ryan, an award-winning poet, and Edward Ryan, a Yale psychologist, have teamed up to introduce an original and heartfelt technique for relaxing: a combination of restful haiku with clear and simple instructions on how to draw out the insights each one contains, and use them for one's own well-being.

Haiku are the perfect form for their exercises because they are the shortest of poems, with the longest of echoes. A good haiku distills a great deal of experience into a few phrases, and sets off a chain of thoughts that expand like the ripples in a pond. Each haiku here makes that little splash which creates a ripple of thought explored in the short commentary that follows.

In today's fast-paced, high-pressure world, Take a Deep Breath can help anyone learn to slow down and take stock, relax and focus on the present moment, and find poetry and depth in their own lives.

Sylvia Forges-Ryan, an established poet whose work has been widely anthologized, has won numerous prizes, including the most prestigious haiku poetry awards in America. For several years she was editor of Frogpond, the journal of the Haiku Society of America.

Edward Ryan, who holds a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Michigan, has studied, practiced, and taught psychotherapy for over thirty years. He has served as Associate Chief of Psychology at VA Connecticut Healthcare, and as Associate Clinical Professor at the Yale University School of Medicine. He has also served on the board of directors of the Insight Meditation Society.