Choruses of peepers sing an endless ringing chirp from a half-frozen swamp beyond the sugarbush. I harvest the last run before the sap goes sour. For six weeks I’m a divining rod of fickle weather, both groundhog and shadow, the lifeblood of maples circulating within me. Now I’m bone-sore from a long season, pushing myself in deep zombied exhaustion. Thousands of gallons hauled from trees to sugarhouse, only to drive most of it off in frenzied boils, churning with foam and large cauliflowered bubbles conjuring a Zen-like trance where less becomes so much more. Sweet steam is my heaven-bound incense, the shack sauna-like with moisture and warmth, welcoming friends out of freezing winds and early dark. We chat away hours, the heart’s endearing trivialities opening without warning since boiling is made of time and listening. Clear liquid slowly thickens to golden, an alchemy of concentrated sunshine ripening the sugarmaker into spring.
David K. Leff is an award-winning poet and essayist, and former deputy commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection. He is the Canton, Connecticut poet laureate, deputy town historian, and town meeting moderator. He was a volunteer firefighter for 26 years.
In 2016 and 2017 David was appointed by the National Park Service to serve as poet-in-residence for the New England National Scenic Trail (NET). He has been nominated three times for a Pushcart Prize, and has twice been a finalist in the Connecticut Book Awards. David has received two silver medals from the Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY), and was grand prize short-listed for the Eric Hoffer Book Award. His work has appeared in anthologies, newspapers such as the Hartford Courant, and magazines including Appalachia and Yankee.
The author of seven nonfiction books, three volumes of poetry, and two novels in verse, David’s work focuses on the connection of people to their communities and the natural environment. He often explores commonplace elements of the world around us that have hidden meanings and unusual links to each other.
David has been the book review editor of Connecticut Woodlands, the quarterly magazine of the Connecticut Forest & Park Association and is now poetry editor. He is a staff writer for The Wayfarer Magazine.
David’s papers are located at the Special Collections and University Archives, UMass/Amherst.
View his work at www.davidkleff.com
