"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.

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Lose something every day. Accept the fluster

of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.

The art of losing isn't hard to master.

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Then practice losing farther, losing faster:

places, and names, and where it was you meant

to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

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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.

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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.

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---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.

Elizabeth Bishop