David K. Leff, Essayist, Poet, Lecturer

David K. Leff's books about ordinary people, places and objects explore stories hidden in plain sight

    

The Price of Water   |   The Last Undiscovered Place |   Deep Travel

Are you a deep traveler?  Do you seek connections among the diverse phenomena you encounter daily?  Welcome to a space on the Web that explores the confluence between natural and cultural environments, that looks at the world in four dimensions, in time as well as space.  Please take a moment to look at David's books, read one of his essays or savor a few poems.  Find out where he's speaking next, or enjoy a slideshow of the last undiscovered place.

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Deep Travel: In Thoreau's Wake on the Concord and Merrimack

University of Iowa Press | 2009 | 280 pages | ISBN: 1-58729-789-2 | Purchase

What is Deep Travel?

At its simplest, deep travel is about mindful looking, about journeys that drill deep into a place rather than demanding distance to be interesting. It's about experience heightened by connecting diverse natural and cultural phenomena often hidden in plain sight, about seeing in four dimensions, in time as well as space.  The deep traveler, for example, knows that the geology of a place is related to its ethnicity and architecture.

The ancients' restless eyes connected the dots in a night sky of chaotic stars and formed them into images and stories that captured the imagination and infused their world with meaning.  The deep traveler does the same with the landscape around him.  Deep travel is a methodology that will enrich a trip anywhere. 

Neglected Graveyards Have Tales to Tell

Hartford Courant | December 21, 2008 | Download PDF

Cemeteries are a seemingly unchanging element of our landscape.  The dead rest for eternity, and the barest facts of their lives are carved in enduring stone.  With orderly rows of headstones set on manicured lawns, they are tranquil islands of stability in a world of transformation and movement.