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Reviewed by Emily-Jane Hills Orford for Readers' Favorite
Life is a journey, one that takes many twists and turns, some good and some not so good. In Deanna Araceli Hampton’s Walking Piece of Art, life is like walking through quicksand, where every step has the potential of being fatal, or, at least, mind-numbing and painful. The poet has many stories to share, stories of pain and suffering from physical abuse as a child to traumas as an adult. The pain of her past has followed her throughout life. She could, like many, turn inward and allow the painful past to continue to control her well-being. Instead, she has nurtured her creativity, her ability to write compelling verse, and to share her story in the hopes of helping others to heal. Her life is a journey of spiritual healing through words. “See, life is a journey./ You cannot hold that which has passed./ You can only learn from it and move forward.”
Deanna Araceli Hampton’s book, Walking Piece of Art: Poetry For Healing, is a collection of thirty poems. Written mostly in free verse, some with an appearance of traditional stanzas, the poems address some difficult experiences from the poet’s past. The book is divided into three parts: Layers Unveiled, Sketches of Self, and, finally, Brushstrokes of Becoming. Deviating from the free verse form of the other poems, The Rollercoaster Called Life uses the shape poem format to give a visual feeling of the ups and downs, the almost freefall motion of riding a rollercoaster, concluding with some compelling words to make the reader think more deeply about their own personal rollercoaster ride: “Another turn into the unknown./ You fall, you scream, you want it to stop,/ but then peace comes.” This collection, in many ways, is a memoir in verse, one that will have readers addressing their pasts and finding creative ways to heal.
