Happy National Poetry Month! II
This is taken from a book that I have thanks to carillon. You probably all know this one, but I love it and the form is used so well..
from Geography III by Elizabeth Bishop:
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, names, 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 a disaster.
I love poetry that hits me at the end like that.
If you're curious, there are other nearby resources for reading poetry daily:
* moireach is posting a poem a day in her lj. Good stuff, too, with brief commentaries. I highly recommend it.
* greatpoets is a community where people post poetry all the time. You can read some classics and some new stuff--and some really new stuff!
* poets.org is a good resource if you want to find particular poets or poems, and they have this nifty almanac that gets updated every day. This month's theme is "30 Ways to Celebrate National Poetry Month" and past themes (which you can find easily on that page) were "Forms and Techniques," "Poetry in the Movies," "Literary Landmarks," and other cool stuff.
from Geography III by Elizabeth Bishop:
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, names, 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 a disaster.
I love poetry that hits me at the end like that.
If you're curious, there are other nearby resources for reading poetry daily:
* moireach is posting a poem a day in her lj. Good stuff, too, with brief commentaries. I highly recommend it.
* greatpoets is a community where people post poetry all the time. You can read some classics and some new stuff--and some really new stuff!
* poets.org is a good resource if you want to find particular poets or poems, and they have this nifty almanac that gets updated every day. This month's theme is "30 Ways to Celebrate National Poetry Month" and past themes (which you can find easily on that page) were "Forms and Techniques," "Poetry in the Movies," "Literary Landmarks," and other cool stuff.