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.

-First stanza of "One Art" by Elizabeth Bishop

I found the iPod shuffle dock, and the Spanish CD, hiding in a shoebox under my bed. I had yet to order a new dock because I kept feeling I would find it soon. Last night something told me to look under my bed and---look!---there they were all along. (The art of losing isn't hard to master.)



The very famous Elizabeth Bishop poem "One Art" came immediately to mind, and since I hadn't read it in a while, I looked it up. She's never been my favorite poet, but if you ever take a poetry class or workshop you'll inevitably end up reading some of her work. "One Art" is, to me, famous for a reason. I mean, it's a villanelle, people! (In short, a villanelle is a French form, and very difficult to make work in English. You've seen a villanelle before if you've ever read Dylan Thomas' "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night.") Villanelles make haiku look like finger paint.



I haven't tried a villanelle in a couple of years, and now I suddenly want to try again. Time to break out a few choice rhyming words and a litany-worthy theme.

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