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.