One Art (Elizabeth Bishop)

I am late tonight and tired, so I'm not up for talking about a new poem, especially when the daily poem on the website I usually use is super long today. So, the poem for today, by Elizabeth Bishop, is one that I have been thinking of a lot lately.

One, this poem's form - a villanelle - is super tricky. I can't imagine writing one, but Elizabeth Bishop does and writes it will such feeling - it doesn't seem formal or stilted (a common side effect when using form). Applause for her.

I love the sense of speed you get from the thing. At first, she only loses minor things - keys, a wasted hour, but as the poem progresses she starts losing more and more. And that last line, the parenthetical, it just kills. It's like a speeding car that ends in a crash.

She was giving a lesson on losing, but at the end, she breaks. The emotion comes ringing through. I choke up when I read it aloud - no matter if for the nth time.

Favorite line: "Lose something every day. Accept the fluster / of lost door keys, the hour badly spent."

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster of lost door keys, the hour badly spent. - See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15212#sthash.8rsPDKuV.dpuf

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster of lost door keys, the hour badly spent. - See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15212#sthash.8rsPDKuV.dpuf

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster of lost door keys, the hour badly spent. - See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15212#sthash.8rsPDKuV.dpuf