One Art
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