Two California poets plumb the telling depths of their creative lives and souls across prison bars.

This two-person memoir delves deeply into art, education, prison, possibility, and which children our world nurtures and which it shuns.

"A boy with no one to listen becomes a man in prison for life. He reads for the first time, and discovers his mind can be free. A woman poet enters a prison to teach, becomes his first listener, and so begin twenty-five years of friendship between two gifted writers and poets... their book will open your heart." --Gloria Steinem

"A portrait of prison and of the pursuit of art. An amazing combo, a compelling read." --Bill Irwin, TONY winning actor, appeared in the Broadway revival of Waiting for Godot

"This is a book about poetry, about struggle, about freedom and incarceration, and most of all about heart." --devorah major, San Francisco Poet Laureate 2002-2005

"Bravo Judith and Spoon for a beautiful work of art." --Piri Thomas, writer, poet, author of "Down These Mean Streets"

"By Heart is so beautifully described, both objectively and emotionally." --Barney Rosset, Publisher/Editor of Grove Press 1951-1985

"This double memoir is imperative for artists who understand the need to reveal and share our common humanity. Spoon Jackson's and Judith Tannenbaum's journeys through childhood, love, loss, and back to poetry move and astound me." --Rhodessa Jones, Founder/Artistic Director of The Medea Project: Theater for Incarcerated Women