BillyBlog's Favorite Poems, #15 ("One Art" by Elizabeth Bishop)

Delusions of grandeur that I would be unveiling rare and unusual poems have fallen by the wayside. Chances are, if I have a favorite poem in the Top 15, it has been seen before by regular readers of poetry. It's not a cop-out. That's just the way it is.

"The art of losing isn't hard to master," the opening line of Elizabeth Bishop's "One Art" is in itself one of the more brilliant lines in poetry (in my humble opinion). Bishop's fans may choose others as greater works, but I love this poem- its rhythms, its rhymes, and ultimately, its message. There is little more to say. If you click the poem link above, you'll be transported over to a blog called The Great American Pinup which offers some additional insight on this work.

ONE ART

The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is not 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 homes 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 make look like (Write it!) a disaster.

More on Bishop here, along with some links to more poems.

Previous Favorite Poems for National Poetry Month:

#16 - "Buddhist Barbie" by Denise Duhamel
#17 - "One Train May Hide Another" by Kenneth Koch
#18 - "Poem (Lana Turner Has Collapsed!) by Frank O'Hara (with Audio)
#19 - "Crumbs" by Hal Sirowitz (Audio Added)
#20 - "This Is Just to Say" by William Carlos Williams
#21 - "They Feed They Lion" by Philip Levine
#22 - "Looking at Kilauea" by Garret Hongo
#23 - "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner" by Randall Jarrell (Audio Added)
#24 - A Handful of Richard Brautigan
#25 - "A Buddha in the Woodpile" by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
#26 - "Separation" by W.S. Merwin
#27 - "The Flea" by John Donne
#28 - Poem Twenty from Pablo Neruda's Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair
#29 - "Magpie's Song" by Gary Snyder
#30 - "Eunoia" by Christian Bok

Poetry in Motion: "Conversation" by Elizabeth Bishop

When, in February, I posted two poems that had recently shown up in New
York City's "Poetry in Motion" series, I saw a large number of hits on
BillyBlog and, more flatteringly, a great number of comments from readers
thanking me for reproducing them here.

I'll pause a moment to recover from one of BillyBlog's longest sentences in
recent memory.

So, this morning, I saw "Conversation," by the great Elizabeth Bishop. I'm
fairly certain this has been on the rails a while, but it gives me an
excuse to post another.

Conversation

The tumult in the heart
keeps asking questions.
And then it stops and undertakes to answer
in the same tone of voice.
No one could tell the difference.

Uninnocent, these conversations start,
and then engage the senses,
only half-meaning to.
And then there is no choice,
and then there is no sense;

until a name
and all its connotation are the same.

See the poster here.