David K. Leff, Essayist, Poet, Lecturer

On the Beach (poem)

Ebb tide, air rich with scents of salted
decay, the rot of life's recycling.
Sea rushes to shore with rhythmic pulses,
and I feel the stroke of seawater within,
my heart pumping to an endless wave-beat.

Water slides up the beach, seeps back
and returns again and again, a cadence
of inhale and exhale soothing the body
but exciting my mind to wander.

Tide pool to desiccated wrack line
ajumble with broken life is the distance
from birth to grave, but I see only the sun’s
hide-and-seek with clouds, wind tickling water.

By the moon’s irresistible, silent tow
the sea kisses the high dried debris twice
daily. I feel its force tug on my bones,
my reptilian brain dumbly possessed.

Restless as the sea, I’m always pushing
and pulling back. Feeling in my fingers
the waves raking the sand I’m drunk
with salt spiced over ripeness.

I envy angel-winged gulls floating,
wheeling on breezes, drifting backward,
strolling the waters edge, chancing on
shellfish, putrid carcasses, and human detritus,
seizing advantage on the living edge.

Signs of the (COVID-19) Times

Popping up like mushrooms on a late summer lawn, thank-you signs acknowledging essential workers have appeared in front of houses, businesses, theaters, government buildings and elsewhere. They’ve been posted in windows, attached to trees, scribbled on sidewalks with chalk, and hung from banners on structures of all types. Even those of us who do not wear our proverbial hearts on our sleeves have no hesitation displaying them on placards outside our homes or businesses.

Most of these signs of gratitude and compassion are simply in the form of hearts. Many say “thank you,” some have hopeful messages like “together,” or acknowledge first responders, essential workers, or those “on the front lines.” While many commercial signs get the message across in a beautiful and heartfelt way, it doesn’t take a long drive to spot homemade signs of all shapes and sizes that express high levels of creativity and community spirit. They can bring as much color and joy into these crisis darkened times as Christmas lights do in seasonal darkness.

Tasting Pine

Taste a pine tree? Sounds a little eco-foraging crazy. But white pines delight the senses in so many other ways, why not have a taste?

They catch the eye with bluish-green branches rising in tiers, towering pagoda-like over other trees. And no scent says “woodsy” like crisp, clean, calming white pine whose odor has found its way into oils, sprays and other commercial products. Their soft, pliable, air brushed needles sound with a distinctive whispering whoosh in the wind, and the feel of their curved cylindrical cones with flexible scales intrigue the hand. I was hungry to complete the sensory circuit and have a taste.