Five by Five: Jamal Hodge’s poetry collection journeys through the writer’s world

By Max Bowen

Jamal Hodge’s new book, “The Dark Between the Twilight,” (Crystal Lake Entertainment) encompasses “a heart’s journey from darkness into light,” according to the author.

The book, which was created from the challenges of 2020, is a mirror of sorts that told Hodge he had a message to share with the world. In this article, we look at that message, the different poems collected in this book, and the amazing cover work.

I’d like to begin with the cover, which is just amazing. Who designed this?
The great Ben Baldwin! I had a design with the concept of stepping through broken glass, a black boy emerging from the darkness into the light, with his eyes ever upwards and forward. This was a metaphor for the entire journey of the collection. Ben, in his unrivaled brilliance, took it to levels I could never have imagined. He is a real diamond and seeks to embody the material with his art. I highly recommend him.

There’s quite a collection of poems here. Were these all recently written? If not, what was the first one?
Some were, and others have gestated in me for a while. The truth is that this collection was borne in the uncertainty and pain of 2020 when the world was shut down, and we were left to hold a mirror to ourselves. My reflection told me that I had yet to put out the message I would want to leave behind in case I died. These poems are that message.

I read that the book is partially a memoir. What aspects of your life did you include?
There are poems that reference and explore aspects of my fear and loneliness, of my abuse and isolation… but also my hope and willful transmutation of those negative experiences into positive tools for the future. So much of me is in these pages that your hand might be stained with blood. Lol

What’s the journey that the reader is taken on?
The Journey through NIGHT confronts the evils in the mind, soul, and others, my darkest fears, such as my suspicion that the world is just a giant blue stomach endlessly digesting itself. TWILIGHT is more of a memoir, a journey so personal that it becomes universal. DAWN confronts the objective and subjective truths of life that set us free from the loneliness and fears of the previous sections.

Is there a reason for the order of the poems?
Yes, the whole book is designed to be a crescendo, a spiritual metaphor for the allegory of the cave. Each poem is a step on a path to a door where your heart is the key.