Ruth Sabath Rosenthal

About the Poet

Ruth is as passionate about living in New York City as she is about poetry. She finds the Big Apple invigorating and inspiring. Reading and listening to poetry, also, will often jumpstart her creative process, as well as, classical music playing in the background as she writes. Ruth is an avid TV watcher, claiming that today's reality shows, with their theatrics and absurdities, are so far from her own reality that they help clear her mind of day-to-day clutter and conflict. This allows her muse, who and whatever that is at the time, to channel through her, to her fingers, to the written page (or more accurately, to her laptop's keyboard.) Although, Ruth started writing poetry late in life, she's had a great appreciation of poetry ever since her mother, one day — out of the blue, during a celebratory dinner, surprised everyone by reciting the poem Abou Ben Adhem by Leigh Hunt That planted the seed, which would eventually blossom into Ruth's 1st poem, and the rest is history.

Ruth considers herself a modern poet of today's times: one who uses both centuries-old, traditional form, as well as poems with no stanza breaks — only line upon line, either single spaced or 1.5 spaced, à la Kay Ryan's style. Ruth has crafted her words and their form, so as to be "reader-friendly" poetry; in plain words "easily understood." Her poems, though, often, complex in subject matter, are not so in form, except for those she'd written in a fixed form (poetry that overtly uses the effects of meter, rhyme and form, especially, a fixed form, such as a Haiku, Sestina, Sonnet, and Villanelle, etc.). Ruth's poems run the gambit from those with punctuation throughout, to, literally, those with no punctuation at all, and, often, no capital letters. Also, a few poems are "formed/shaped" poems, insomuch as they have a specific shape that represents a specific object: a "vase;" a "dog's tail."

Read more about what "Modern poetry/Today's poetry" is.

Of My Labor

A compilation of poetry, plus many full-color photo images (in addition to the black & white images and drawings) — each relating to specific poems…

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Manfred

A young Jewish boy’s account of life in a Nazi concentration camp and how he’d gotten there; that, followed by his harrowing experience as one…

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Safe ‘n Sound (or not!)

The title of this book and the poems therein were inspired by the real-life, unprecedented relationship between a Red fox and German Shepherd…

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little, but by no means small

little, but by no means small is filled with short poems (including haiku) portraying all sorts of beings and objects, animate and inanimate…

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Food: Nature vs Nurture

Food: Nature vs Nurture is chock-full of all sorts of earthly beings vying for their fair share of whatever it is they believe will sustain them…

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Gone, but Not Easily Forgotten

The poems in Gone, but Not Easily Forgotten are about exactly what the title indicates: the loved and missed: people, pets, possessions…

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Facing Home

Chapbook, Facing Home is no sentimental or nostalgic gesture of Ruth’s, but rather a tough-minded en-counter with the subtle cruelties…

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Facing Home and beyond

“Facing Home and beyond” is no longer available; it has been replaced with the larger collection, Of My Labor (82 pages added, containing new and revised poems, and, also, more drawings and photos images - many now in full color!)

Professional Bio

Ruth Sabath Rosenthal, a New York City Poet, is well published in the U.S. and, also, internationally. She began writing in the year 2000, and became accomplished early on. She's been tutored by some well-regarded New York City poets, both privately, and in classes, primarily at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan.

Ruth’s body of work includes poems published in a myriad of literary journals and poetry anthologies. (For details, see On the Web, In Anthologies, and In Journals.) In October 2006, Ibbetson Street Magazine nominated her poem “on yet another birthday” for a Pushcart prize and several of her poems have won commendation in competitions: The Margaret Reid Poetry Contest for Traditional Verse (2008) and The Tom Howard Poetry Contest (2007). Additionally, Ruth is a featured poet on Poetrykit.org and Poetryvlog.

Ruth has authored 7 books of poetry: Finishing Line Press published her debut book — a chapbook titled Facing Home and Paragon Poetry Press, Inc., published the 6 full-length books: Of My Labor, Facing Home and beyond, little but by no means small, Food: Nature vs Nurture, Gone, but Not Easily Forgotten, and Safe 'n Sound (or not!).

Books, reviewed