Elizabeth Bishop : One Art
One Art :
The art of losing isnât 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 isnât 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 motherâs watch. And look ! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isnât hard to master.
I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasnât a disaster.
âEven losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shanât have lied. Itâs evident
the art of losingâs not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it !) like disaster. [1]
Elizabeth Bishop
Scribo ergo cogito
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