"I must be willingly fallible
to deserve a place in the realm
where miracles happen."

William Stafford (1914-1993)

Token Loss   by Kay Ryan

To the dragon
any loss is 
total.  His rest
is disrupted
if a single 
jewel encrusted
goblet has
been stolen.
The  circle
of himself
in the nest
of his gold
has been
broken.  No
loss is token.


lkm:  Two thoughts on Token Loss:  Having recently seen the second installment of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, I'm thinking that this little poem is the perfect description of Smaug's loss.  And secondly, with most poetry these days feeling more like prose "jerryrigged" into stanza form, lacking metaphor, rhythm, rhyme and poetic spirit, what a breath of fresh, poetic air this is!  Below are Ryan's comments on the shape of the poem (from Poem-a-Day from the Academy of American Poets, January 10, 2014):  

Ideally, this little poem would be printed as a circle and wouldn't start or end but rather would round upon itself like the seamless repose of the dragon.  

But, on second thought, since it's describing the disruption of the dragon's perfect circuit, I guess it makes sense that it's all chopped up."  --Kay Ryan