For Alex (and anyone who needs it).

[mynewdramachine]

ONE ART
by Elizabeth Bishop

The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seemed 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

Comments

[brttvns]

An old favourite! I love the form of the villanelle, I have several favourites, this one ranks amongst them. Thanks for the read once again.

[madamevoilanska]

I didn't encounter this poem until the movie In Her Shoes, but it's glorious. Thanks!

[mariaklob]

Thoroughly beautiful. Those two words (Write it!) in the last line make one of the most evocative phrases I have ever read in a poem.

[teithiwr]

This poem always makes me feel, and right now it's so painfully appropriate that I have tears in my eyes. Thank you for posting this one just now.

[heaven_spawn]

Ah the classic. This one's been in the group for years now, lost amid all the tags.