One Artby Elizabeth Bishop
The art of
losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be
lost that their loss is no disaster.
Lose something every day. Accept the
flusterof lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The
art of losing isn't hard to master.
Then practice losing
farther, losing
faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to
travel. None of these will bring
disaster.
I lost my mother's watch. And
look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn't hard to
master.
I lost two cities,
lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two
rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn't a
disaster.
--Even losing
you (the joking voice, a gesture
I
love) I shan't have lied. It's evident
the art of losing's not too hard to master
though it may look like (
Write it!) like
disaster.