Ways to Reduce the Heating Bill

"Ways to Reduce the Heating Bill"

It's time to add another quilt to the seven already on the bed. I'll re-plastic all the windows and you can dig out the box of old sweaters. We'll keep the thermostat at sixty degrees and can fill hot water bottles and put them between the cold sheets. After we move the electric teapot and tomato soup next to the bed we'll stuff towels into the crack underneath the door. Then we'll pile on sweaters and long underwear, get under the covers, and read The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes to one another. Although, we're probably more likely to slip out of our sweaters, crawl between the covers, and find other ways to keep warm.

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I didn't set a goal for myself today. I spent most of the day with a fuzzy brain, watching black and white movies and shaking off last night's poor decisions. Whoops. I was looking for something that would be a fun poem to write on a Sunday evening.

As tomorrow is Monday, it's back to the grindstone with a lovely little poem by Elizabeth Bishop. Goals for tomorrow: more attempts at rhyme. Practice transitions. By the bye, I would greatly appreciate any direction I can receive on aspects of my poems that I need to work on/poems for the coming weeks.

One Art

by Elizabeth 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 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.