One Art

I think Bishop is trying to say that loss is not a big deal in life. It's like she is trying to convince herself that losing things is not all that disastrous. She takes losing as a skill and you have to master it. It is like she is learning to become numb to losing things, or even people. The poem starts out with her losing mundane things such as "lost door keys...mother's watch." These are material things that you can live without. As the poem progresses she losses things that are of greater and greater significance to her, but still she brushes it off. The last stanza is probably the most important one. "Even losing you(the joking voice, a gesture I love)...It's evident the art of losing's not too hard to master though it may look like (Write it!) disaster." She lost someone she loves, and she's struggling with the pain of it. It's like she is trying to rationalize the pain she is feeling by saying the other things I have lost were not a big deal so this is not either. In reality, she's hurting inside so much and really feels lost without this person. Loosing people is not the same as loosing your mother's watch.