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.
This is my favourite Elizabeth Bishop poem. Thank you for sharing!
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Thank you for the kind comment. 🙂
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ah how true. you lose a person you value and you are amazed at how you are still alive when he was everything. but here you are, breathing. breathing but you feel nothing at all.
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Well said, thank you. 🙂
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Ah yes, a lovely share indeed
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Thanks Rob. 🙂
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I think I might have mastered this art 🙁 Lovely
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You too, eh? 🙂
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Yep.
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fantastic poem and a beautiful spring like image!! (snow here!)
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Becoming spring-like here but it can still change from day to day. 🙂
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❤
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Thank you ❤
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