The Art Of Losing

One Art
By Elizabeth Bishop 1911–1979

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.

(24) Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Those who want to come with me must say no to the things they want, pick up their crosses, and follow me. (25) Those who want to save their lives will lose them. But those who lose their lives for me will find them."
-- Matthew 16:24-25 (GWT)

Losing is sometimes winning,
Grateful