Paris April 1st, 1922

A mile of clean sand.
I will write my name here, and the trouble that is my heart.
I will write the date & place of my birth,
What I was to be,
And what I am.
I will write my forty sins, my thousand follies,
My four unspeakable acts...
I will write the names of the cities I have fled from,
The names of the men and woman I have wronged.
I will write the holy name of her I serve,
And how I serve her ill.
And I will sit on the beach and let the tide come in.
I will watch with peace the great calm tongue of the tide
Licking from the sand the unclean story of my heart.

-Edna St. Vincent Millay