One Art / E.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 list door keys, the hour nadly 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 house went.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

I lose 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 through it may look like(Write it!)
like disaster.

Geography of the Imagination

Geography of the Imagination -E.Bishop

「對我而言，詩向來是表達個人感受最自然的方式。我從沒立志要「成為」詩人，不像我所知道的現今有些人那樣。我不喜歡任何形式的標籤。詩興來了就寫嘛，這才要緊，而不是老想自己是個詩人，成天活著只為了寫詩。這種人處在漫長的、創造力枯竭的的時期，日子怎麼過？詩最好讓它在無意識的狀態下自然發生。」

Wherever in the Wastes/ W.B. Yeats

Wherever in the wastes of wrinkling sand

Worn by the fan of ever flaming time Longing for human converse, we have pitched

A camp for musing in some seldom spot Of not unkindly nurture, and let loose

To roam and ponder those sad dromedaries

Our dreams, the Master of the pilgrimage

Cries, "Nay--the caravan goes ever on,

The goal lies further than the morning star. "