so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.
-Elizabeth Bishop, from One Art
The art of living isn’t hard to muster:
Enjoy the hour, not what it might portend.
When someone makes you promises, don’t trust her
-Marilyn Hacker,from From Orient Point
MY ART
The art of laughing isn’t hard to foster:
Smile at everything and don’t lament.
For every life is an inevitable disaster.
Laugh every day, never mind the disaster
of lost luggage, money badly spent.
The art of laughing isn’t hard to foster.
Don’t feign laughter, just master
a sense of humor, ignore all intent;
for introspection will not prevent disaster.
I laugh now at boyhood disaster:
lost bliss in a shared room, my first love’s feint.
The art of laughing isn’t hard to foster.
I’ve laughed at my bad choices. And vaster,
great opportunities to be content,
But regret is not my master.
---Even laughing at all I love is a gesture,
not of contempt, but of what is evident;
that the art of laughing is not too hard to foster
when faced with the certainty of inevitable disaster.
-Adam, July 21, 2007
