Travel Companion

Elizabeth Bishop is one of my favorite poets ever. Her concise written, made with a few, simple, and almost crude words have the ability of let me amazed.

Her poems are the remedy for my moments of academic written. Was reading her book of letters, between one and another chapter of my dissertation, that I could finish my master degree. When I read "Rare and Commonplace Flowers", book that tells the love story lived between Bishop and Lota de Macedo Soares I discovered the beauties of living in Rio de Janeiro. Now, in San Francisco, I found a book with her complete poems that I want to read as a Christian who reads the Bible. For those who didn’t know Elizabeth Bishop I transcribe below my favorite poem from her.

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 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's not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

Elizabeth Bishop