only if you must

these fearsome marvels · "One Art" (E. Bishop) / "only if you must"

I said I'd never practice art.
Art hurts more than love,
and Rilke's sympathetic curse
came bundled with a bypass clause
past pain and joy and
trials of the self,

to work and fuck and say your prayers
above two dinners after lunch,
if your eyes are big enough.

But love hurts and to fail in love
hurts most
because failure is, of course, an art.