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 lived. It's evident
the art of losing's not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.
-- Elizabeth Bishop
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
so many things just seem like they are filled with the intent to be lost....
it makes me wanna cry... it makes me smile...
it helps to shift the blame to the things for having lost them....
but then i pause and i think what things am i talking about?
the pens i lose everday... the keys i am paranoid about losing... the memories i sometimes wanna erase and sometimes spend hours replaying every frame in my mind in an effort hold onto them....
the cities, the lanes, the windows, the sound of the fan whirring, the smell of maa's cooking, the feel of dad's stubble...the music of the payal...
but did i lose them....or did i just travel a little further along the road carrying them with me...as they became me and i became them....
Post a Comment