Monday 3 January 2011

I lost two cities, lovely ones

The two poems I like are very different. One is about love, the other is about loss. The words of the poem 'One Art' by Elizabeth Bishop teaches the reader an important lesson about loss. Losing things is good, if you never lose anything you will never learn how much you love the things you retain such as love itself. I truly treasure the words in this poem.


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.

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