my birthday present

my birthday present
My awesome birthday present 1/26/11 (see story under my first post)

Monday, August 11, 2014

One Art

Lisa read Still Life with a Balloon,  the post from Sunday,  and was reminded of this poem by Elizabeth Bishop. I believe I posted it earlier, but it is certainly worth revisiting. Perhaps you too will make connections between the two poems.


One Art

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 fluster
of 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.

Elizabeth Bishop, “One Art” from The Complete Poems 1926-1979.
Copyright © 1979, 1983



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