There are plenty of paths to poetry but few are as accessible as retracing ones own memories. When students are asked to write about something they remember, they are given them the gift of choosing from events that are important enough to recall. They remember because what happened was funny or scary or embarrassing or heartbreaking or silly. They may not retain every detail, but they know how they felt, and emotion is the beating heart of poetry. A bonus of memoir writing is that students cannot be wrong about their idea. It's their memory!