When I was 12 my mother bought me this quitelarge metal heart necklace which was itself like a clam on a clasp, able to conceal what was supposed to be prayers. One year during college, before a race in San Diego, I put a poem by ee cummings into the clam heart. The day before the race I got a tattoo of the last line - what means for me the outcome of. [All it ever has to be]

let it go - the
smashed word broken
open vow or
the oath cracked length
wise - let it go it
was sworn to
go

let them go - the
truthful liars and
the false fair friends
and the boths and
neithers - you must let them go they
were born
to go

let all go - the
big small middling
tall bigger really
the biggest and all
things - let all go
dear

so comes love