One Art

I've had a tab open in my browser for weeks now to remind me to do a little research on Elizabeth Bishop. I first heard of her through a poem she wrote that was referenced in In Her Shoes (starring Cameron Diaz and Toni Collette).

Anyway, the poem gripped me. So here it is. I won't make any comment on it, although it seems I like American poets from the first half of the 20th century.

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's not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.