One Art

A few years ago, in my AP English class my junior year, I had to memorize an Elizabeth Bishop poem. Lately, I've been remembering some of the lines from it. I love her outlook on loss because I can relate to the rationalization and the refusal to think of it as "disaster". 

One Art by Elizabeth Bishop

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 everyday. 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 laugh, 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.