Always Learn Poems by Heart…

My good friend Sameer posted a quote on his Tumblr today. It sounded familiar to me but I couldn’t remember where I’d heard it from. Finally, I realized that it’s from White Oleander, a novel by Janet Fitch. The words come from the main character’s mother Ingrid, a gifted poet who was sentenced to life in prison for committing murder. As charming a character as she is devastating, eloquent Ingrid makes us believe in the redemptive powers of art:

Always learn poems by heart. They have to become the marrow in your bones. Like fluoride in the water, they’ll make your soul impervious to the world’s soft decay.