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.
~ Elisabeth Bishop
Isn't this the saddest poem you've ever heard?
The concept of loss is universal. We have all lost something. Most times we lose small mundane things like keys or glasses or documents. Sometimes, not so very often, we lose something that means so much more - a human relationship, a someone.
Losing things is inevitable, and dare I say, a norm of life. But when you really think about it, nothing truly belongs to us at the end of the day. We came into this world alone, and we leave alone.
So when you lose something, go ahead cry a little, then you stand up again. Learn to let go. Life's too short to be living in their shadow.
