“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.”
― Elizabeth Bishop, One Art
© 2026 – SoulSequel
7 responses to “Are you a master at losing, yet?”
I try to be a master at letting go. Sometimes it takes a while to get used to the idea that I need to let go. Open my grip and let it go, walk away and don’t look back. Sometimes it is hard. My Grandma had two miniature rootbeer mugs that I dearly loved as a child. I took possession of them after Grandma’s death. They were treasured. When I packed to move to Arizona, I remember packing them. I also remember my roommate/renter saying how she loved them — because they were cute. Somehow, they were not in the box when I got to Arizona. She must have taken them before I taped up that box. Sadly, I have to let go and say , “Oh well.”
Sometimes it is easy to let go. My late husband had some really ugly dishes that his stepmother gave to him and his second wife (whom the stepmother hated), as a wedding gift. When his second wife left him, she gladly left the ugly dishes behind. I had to live with having inherited them — as I was his third wife. One day we had a really strong earthquake and the dishes began to fall out of the cabinet —– OK, I helped them fall out of the cabinet. They might have been saved, except when I picked them up —- well, I picked them up with a hammer. There was nothing left of them. It was easy to let the shattered dishes go and replace them with my beautiful dishes.
Some things lost just get replaced. I lost my phone. I searched everywhere I could think of. I retraced my steps and even accused a few store employees of finding it and keeping it. In the end, I let it go. I went to the phone store and replaced it. I had the lost phone turned off. Oh well. That’s a loss!!! Later on, I came home and reached in the refrigerator for some iced tea —— and there was my lost phone on a shelf in the refrigerator, now turned off and dead.
Things come and things go in our lives. For our sanity, we have to learn to let go. It is in the contract of life. It is a “Sanity Clause”.
@ladybarbara Indeed! We have to delete old memories to make room for new ones!
When playing some game that I am totally not interested in, I try to get out of the game by losing. I just want out of it. I don’t want to learn the skills of the game. I don’t have to learn skills to lose the game. Then, I can drop out of it and get on with life. I hate games. I am a Master at losing.
@ladybarbara I’m selective about games. Some of them I hate and will simply refuse to play most of the time.
@Scarlett2 I am not quick minded and do not like the games Immortal Pirate’s family plays —– usually card games. I am usually standing up at the table because the bar stool chairs hurt to sit in. I get shooting back pains that spread to painful legs and it gets so unbearably painful standing. I have a cracked disk in my spine. I am not sharp minded when standing in pain. I want to get out of the game so that I am free to leave the table and go sit and talk to the “Grandmother” and Mothers in the living room. They are older and more my age and socializing with them is far more enjoyable than a card game. Besides that, they are sitting in comfortable chairs. I would rather be sitting on the sofa. Games are annoying to me.
Loss is part of life…it is inevitable that we lose people, places, or things. Losing memories are probably the hardest to deal with.
@immortal_pirate That is why I treasure the funny memories from my past. They make me smile and enjoy a chuckle.