David K. Leff, Essayist, Poet, Lecturer

Abandoned Quarry (New England Trail Haibun)

After crossing State Route 57, I pass large concrete barrier blocks colorfully graffitied, a rusting metal gate, and bullet-holed signs warning “DANGER.”  Behind them, a broad gravel road crunching underfoot is lined with crowded young pines.  Suddenly, the thick tree canopy disappears, light spills onto the ground, and I stand dazzled beneath horseshoe shaped cliffs several stories tall.

Lit fiery orange, late afternoon sun throws the wall’s fractured, cleft, and angular facets into high relief like an old man’s leathery face lined with time, work and worry.  Embraced by this carved rock amphitheater, I sense the grandeur and gravitas of a ruined Roman arena.  Sounds of blasting were once the crowd’s roar when steel, diesel breathing gladiators flexed their hydraulic muscles to shovel and crush stone.

Once high as the cliffs, the quarry floor is unnaturally flat, colonized by grasses and sparse clumps of pine, juniper, and spindly birch.  In a space where the destructive power of man and machine carried away part of a mountain in pieces for construction of roads and structures, I’m enticed by an irresistible beauty as stark as a southwestern butte.  Slowly, ever so slowly, this place grows feral again.

mountain hauled away
scar of unnatural grace
time and nature heal

Flag Day Every Day at Roadside

More than just a cloth banner hung on a pole or draped across buildings, the American flag is often interpreted in many forms as art.  Old Glory has been   voted a means of artistic expression repeatedly by citizens who paint various versions on everything from the sides of barns to mailboxes.  Perhaps no three colors or geometric combination were ever better married.  Paired with the ideals of the American Revolution, the desire to express the flag through art is irresistible.  As a result, We the People repeatedly discover new ways to interpret this symbol of nationhood on common objects.

Chimney on Suffield Mountain (New England Trail Haibun)

Like the trail’s own exclamation point, the lonely, weather-beaten chimney stands on a rise not far from the road.  Constructed of rectangular chunks of brindled traprock, it’s lost mortar near the top and looks like it might tumble any moment.  Entangled in vines, and encircled by young trees, the fireplace hasn’t seen flames in years.

The stone stack stands as an epitaph for the ridgeline cabin retreat of Hugh M. Alcorn, powerful state legislator and long-time state’s attorney over half a century ago.  Here at his island in the sky remote from the perilous crosscurrents of politics, I want to eavesdrop through time and listen to tales and laughter that went up the flue with smoke.  At this spot he could pause to watch clouds and listen to the singsong poor-sam-peabody-peabody-peabody whistle of white-throated sparrows.

Oases in the woods, I always stop at the old cabin chimneys perched here and there on knolls and ledges along the path.  It’s a chance to catch my breath and hear my heartbeat, take a sip of water, or have a snack.  Such spots invite contemplation and conversation with companions; stir ghosts of old jokes and stories told around late night fires.   I dream of life in the woods even as I resent this sign of occupation and possession where I seek the wild.  Refreshed and ready, I hit the trail.

rickety chimney
stories once at a stone hearth
voices up in smoke

(Haibun is a marriage of prose and haiku.  It was first practiced by seventeenth-century Japanese poet Matsuo Basho who perfected the form in a journal he kept on a trip to the remote regions of northern Japan. Gary Snyder, James Merrill, and Jack Kerouac are among American interpreters of the genre.  Haibun best expresses the spirit of the New England Trail because it combines clear-eyed prose descriptions of people, objects and places along with poetry that awakens the imagination.)

The New England National Scenic Trail, a unit of the National Park Service, runs 215 miles from Guilford, Connecticut to the Massachusetts/ New Hampshire border.  The trail is maintained by volunteers of the Connecticut Forest & Park Association in Connecticut and the Appalachian Mountain Club in Massachusetts.  For more go to https://newenglandtrail.org/