Edward Piercy

No Disaster

Monday, 14. September 2009, 21:49:31

"One Art"

by

Elizabeth Bishop

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 beloved 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 gestureI 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!) a disaster.

(Ovelse gor mester.)

Shark, Octopus, Pop Star4:38 AM

Comments

Stardancer # 14. September 2009, 22:48

I've mastered it, and if I can do it, anybody can.

Beautiful, and wonderful to see you posting again!

Hope all is well with you, Mom and Sasha!

edwardpiercy # 14. September 2009, 23:01

I would say that it is natural to most people, we all lose things, people. I suppose like you I'm getting more and more used to it, but still count my blessings.

I wish I could have used a photo of Bishop with the post as is normal for me. Can't do it from the Blackberry, though.

Things are fine here, more or less.

Hope all is well with you also.

ellinidata # 14. September 2009, 23:11

nice! I couldn't agree more!

if it is OK with you Eddie ,
I will add the pictures here :

PS, I wonder if you edit my comments,
and get the links,
if you can add them into your post

I am just saying

edwardpiercy # 14. September 2009, 23:14

Thanks for the rescue! That top one is my favorite of her.

I kinda guessed she'd be a cat person!

After lunch I will try out the link idea.

edwardpiercy # 14. September 2009, 23:21

Okay, not after lunch.

Yea! It worked!

ellinidata # 15. September 2009, 00:49

w00t! I am delighted it did work!
the top
it is very much my favorite too!
however I can not pass on a picture that includes a cat

edwardpiercy # 15. September 2009, 02:07

Or johnny Depp. It's probably good that there's no photo of Johnny holding a cat, or you'd have an aneurism.

ellinidata # 15. September 2009, 02:58

hey what about holding a bunny?

at "Mad hatter" he was holding bunnies!!

OK

this one might not be the real thing...but you asked for it!

I can never refuse to share my Johnny! No

aneurim unless I am the cat that Johnny holds!

edwardpiercy # 15. September 2009, 03:15

WTF?

ROTF.

edwardpiercy # 15. September 2009, 03:26

Speaking of which, I'm watching Sleepy Hollow.

Johnny Depp for you and Christina Ricci for me.

ellinidata # 15. September 2009, 03:27

you just have to name it .....

but you knew that already!

gdare # 15. September 2009, 04:53

We have to learn to loose things/people in life in order to appreciate what we have.
I guess.
there is always a ballance, more or less.

Aqualion # 15. September 2009, 05:16

I had a conversation with my friend the methodist Deacon the other day, and amongst other subjects we discussed the matter of loss. Not just personal loss, but the more profound and general loss of values. Cultural evolution - that little thing we call 'history' - provides us with new inventions and new endavours year after year, but some things also get lost. As humans we can somehow control the new things which are coming, but the losses are out of our control. We just wake up one morning to find that something is lost. We have to deal with this.

Just a few musings. Hope you understand. Good post. Substancial.

edwardpiercy # 15. September 2009, 06:28

Darko, Martin, I thank you for contributing.

Being able to control the new but not the loss of the old. A good point.

ricewood # 15. September 2009, 13:58

True words. Wisdom of life. I wonder about your "practice makes the master" remark at the end?

edwardpiercy # 15. September 2009, 14:27

You taught me that phrase a long time ago Allan. I thought it seemed appropriate here -- practice mastering loss.

PainterWoman # 15. September 2009, 15:24

Great post Edward....comments too. I've become a master in the last couple of years. Just recently found 4 tape measures because each time I lost one, I'd buy another. At the moment, they are ALL in one place.

edwardpiercy # 15. September 2009, 18:12

Pam, are you saying that tape measures have a place where they go to hide? Kinda like the Elephants' Graveyard?

PainterWoman # 15. September 2009, 18:22

Tape measures, hammers, screwdrivers, you name it. I now have three complete sets of screwdrivers. You know, those kind you buy with 10 different kinds and sizes. Finally found my painted red hammer but I know there are two or three others.

I've got this five foot high red tool chest. All the drawers are labeled. As I've been organizing lately, I'm finding tools in various different places all over inside and outside the house. I immediately put them back in to the 'empty' drawers.

I am notorious for leaving a tool wherever I am working.

edwardpiercy # 15. September 2009, 18:36

Maybe you should get you one of those hot construction worker tool belts. And a tight fitting t-shirt with the sleeves cut off.

Aqualion # 15. September 2009, 22:31

I'm lost for words.

edwardpiercy # 15. September 2009, 22:59

No way. I don't believe it. Perhaps another cup of coffee and a good smoke -- that ought to return you to being lost IN words. Which of course is a good thing. Flying through the azure heaven with Thoth.

Hope you are both well. And your cat.

Stardancer # 15. September 2009, 23:07

One of these days when I'm rich, I'm going to begin looking for the World of Lost Socks. I think there's a cave behind a waterfall that marks the entrance to that world, and I figure it's somewhere up in the Ozarks, because most of the people around the Ozarks go barefoot. (It's easier for their socks to get there.) I'll know when I've found it, because all these socks will be hanging around without their matches. Then I'll conquer the Sock King, and help all the single socks find their matches.

And they'll all live happily ever after.

The end.

Aqualion # 16. September 2009, 00:04

My cat is a cat of very few words. She seems to prefer communicating with facial expressions and gestures at least when she is speaking to me. When she is speaking to the otherwise invisible housefairies who seem to be flying around in the rooms she'd make this squeaky sound as if she is utterly annoyed. I've tryed to tell her many times that it's only hallucionations due to her appetite for the house plant leafs, but she seems to know better than me or perhaps she's in denyal towards her abusive personality. Either way around she's giving those ivisible creatures a hard time chasing them around in the house. By the way I happen to know that she's both intelligent and in to arts and politics. Why else should I find her sunday morning with the sunday newpaper spread all over the living room floor? She must have been reading the news before I even had a chance. Clever cat.

edwardpiercy # 16. September 2009, 00:05

@ Star

LMAO.

Well now I'm lost for words too.

Time for another Bloody Mary.

(PS it would seem to me that the Sock King would have to have help in all that -- sock fairies?)

@ Martin

I hope your cat is keeping the sock fairies away.

BTW perhaps the sock fairies have relatives -- the tool fairies. That would account for Pam's problem too.

Stardancer # 16. September 2009, 01:43

Oh my. The fairies are everywhere, aren't they?