Art of Forgetting~!

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 is not too hard to master
though it may look like disaster.


The poem entitled “One Art” by Elizabeth Bishop is a villanelle that uses both the structure and content to evoke the emotion that the poet is conveying and it set me thinking...

Throughout the poem it seems that Bishop is not talking to an audience but rather thinking through or convincing herself of struggle and acceptance of loss in her life. Is it as simple as telling yourself over and over and over again that,"hey its no big deal…" I can get over this… or get over that...or can get over her/him!!

Here at this point I should clarify what exactly I meant by “getting over”. Getting over from something or somebody means, forgetting; wiping the concerned memory out of your conscious, sub-conscious or un-conscious mind (much like the guy you saw waiting for a lift on the roadside while you zapped in your friend’s car after a great drinking session at the local pub. You have absolutely no recollection of him the next morning.. and nor you bother to remember..) and that my friend is not quite possible.

A wise guy told me other day.. you know try to get used to your cleaned closet.. and I told him.. yeah even after you clean the 4 day old garbage, its stink lingers..and I guess even Ms Bishop will agree with me.. although she mastered the art of “losing” but mastering “forgetting” is a different matter altogether.