Friday, September 11, 2009

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 isn't too hard to master
Though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

--Elizabeth Bishop

 

Lost homes



Richard Ehrlich

Grey Gardens

"It's very difficult to keep the line between the past and the present, you know what I mean."

-- Little Edie