“What can I do with this memory?
Shake the bones out of it?
Defoliate the smile?
Stub out the chin with cigarettes?
Take the face of the man I love
and squeeze my foot into it,
when all the while my heart is making a museum?
I love you the way the oboe plays.
I love you the way skinny dipping makes my body feel.
I love you the way a ripe artichoke tastes.
Yet I fear you,
as one in the desert fears the sun.”

— Anne Sexton

"Waking Alone" from The Divorce Papers
45 Mercy Street (1976)

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Do you have more details about the quote "What can I do with this memory? Shake the bones out of it? Defoliate the smile? Stub out the chin with cigarettes? …" by Anne Sexton?

Anne Sexton 120

poet from the United States 1928–1974

Og Mandino book The Greatest Salesman in the World

Source: The Greatest Salesman in the World (1968), Ch. 9 : The Scroll Marked II, p. 59.
Context: Henceforth I will look upon all things with love and I will be born again. I will love the sun for it warms my bones; yet I will love the rain for it cleanses my spirit. I will love the light for it shows me the way; yet I will love the darkness for it shows me the stars. I will welcome happiness because it enlarges my heart; yet I will endure sadness because it opens my soul. I will acknowledge rewards because they are my due; yet I will welcome obstacles because they are my challenge.
I will greet this day with love in my heart.

“I can make it through this
You can throw the world in my face
But the fear gives me life
And I swear 'til I die
I'm gonna do it my way”

Aloe Blacc (1979) American soul singer, rapper and musician

Source: Song My Way

“I love you' I thought. But I didn't say it. It was not that I feared she would laugh in my face… My fear was a greater one--that she won't say it back.”

Alex Flinn book Beastly

Variant: I love you, I thought. But I didn’t say it. It was not that I feared she would laugh in my face. She was far too kind for that. My fear was a greater one— that she won’t say it back.
Source: Beastly