Saturday, January 20, 2007

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

4 comments:

Gladtomeetin said...

Good one......Its very easy to loose always but not very easy to forget the lost one(be it anything) !!!!

Arun Jose Francis said...

I don't know if it is me, but I am able to get over things pretty quickly... May be because I am a shallow person... But I like it like that. I completely agreed to Elizabeth Bishop on that... That's why I put it... :-)

persona said...

u need to get over only if u r under anything!! so wait until u get under anything!

Arun Jose Francis said...

Hmm, should be true Vipu...