Poetry Monday

One Art



by 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.