For anyone who likes to write poems, know that you can create a memoir using poems. You can write about your life using poems. Or, you can simply include poems in your memoir or lifewriting, mixing them in with prose. A poem is a piece of your heart that you can leave to your children and their children. More than text, a poem is a deep reflection of your thoughts and feelings and can be stunningly meaningful and beautiful and really tell who you are as a person. Few words can say so much, expose so much.

I have written poems since high school. I have written poems about my husband, my children, my mother and father, and even about pets. I have written poems during difficult times and about what has affected me in the world. Since I’ve finally finished publishing the stories of all my and my husband’s parents, it’s time for me to write my stories, and I will be including many poems.

Examples of memoirs with poems:

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

Threads of My Life by Mina Kirby

When You See My Mother, Ask Her to Dance by Joan Baez

I Am Maria by Maria Shriver

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