Jodie Hittle

The author of eight books of poetry, Jodie Hittle writes: "Innocence ends with language; the ability to tell a story; the power to construct a lie. And with it begins the painstaking and regrettable task of having to remember fact from fiction: a losing endeavor in which one must guard for the rest of his days against that inevitable moment of inattention when at last he stands exposed, saddled with the heavy deficit of deceit, naked and ashamed in the light of the truth." It’s the light of the truth found in the ordinary and the extraordinary that drives this award-winning poet to blacken pages with stories and observations about the human experience. He sums up his own life in a simple sonnet:

Just a whit within a moment I came
Of a union of two the same conceived:
Deaf and blind and without need of a name
In a world spawned from a climax achieved.
Each of us comes into being this way:
Limpid and lithe yet with tacit power;
Exacted a form as if carved from clay;
Enlivened as seed into a flower.

Having been vested this marvel of life—
Incomprehensible as it may be
To a soul too soon acquainted with strife—
I appreciate more now that I see:
My life began with neither debt nor cost;
Will end a whit within a moment lost.

An insurance professional for the past 21 years, Jodie moved to the US from England in 1979 at the age of nine, and has been writing poetry ever since. He lives with his wife and two daughters in Saco. His ninth collection of poetry will be published this fall.