The Dancing trilogy finds freedom in free verse

Chico novelist, poet and former foster daughter Hope Hill finds a kind of release in her free verse. In three volumes of poetry, the texts are centered on each page but without titles or periods, flowing as if they were ribbons dancing in the wind.

Each book is published independently and costs $5.00 in paperback (also available on Amazon Kindle). “Dancing On The Ceiling” is a meditation on suffering. “Every adult says/ The daylight nightmares/ Will never go away/ But you've got to get over them/ The truth is, you can't/ Because the daylight nightmares/ I have/ Are one hundred percent real/ Not monsters under my bed/ But people attacking me/ One bad memory after another/ Flooding my mind/ Searing my brain,” the poet writes.

“Dancing In A Minefield” is explicitly about poetry as therapy. “Can you explain/ Why I must spill these words/ Or risk losing my self-esteem?” And: “I could no more stop writing/ Than I could destroy myself” – and yet there are moments that almost destroy the poet:

“I'm dancing in a minefield/ Swirling amid the explosions/ Wondering when I'll break/ And fall apart again,” but then, “As I write, I find the truth/ For I must find answers/ And they're hidden in my mind” amid trauma, fear, shame. “Being mentally ill/ And being disabled as a result of that mental illness/ Means that PTSD/ Affects every aspect of my life,” the poet says.

“Dancing In A Storm,” the third volume, is “about survival”: “I write this/ For my future self/ I want to remember/ That I fought/ To stay alive/ It wasn’t always easy/ But it was always worth it/ And when the storm clouds clear/ As they always do/ I will remember/ That the sky/ Wept for me,” writes the poet.

The poet's task is not to escape the past, but to integrate it into his inner being. “I am autistic/ And to change that/ Would mean I wouldn't/ Recognize myself/ I don't know who I would be/ Without autism” – Hill's writing takes the reader on a harrowing yet joyful journey as the poet “writes himself healthy.”

Dan Barnett teaches philosophy at Butte College. For review requests, send to [email protected]. Columns archived at

Originally published: August 20, 2024 at 3:30 am