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 fl.u.s.ter


    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.