Exploring connections
Leff ’s poems are about relationships: between and among people, with the natural world, and with a greater spiritual power
David K. Leff is an award-winning poet and essayist, poet laureate of Canton. He’s the author of six nonfiction books, three volumes of poetry, and two novels in verse. He is a former deputy commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection. By appointment of the National Park Service, Leff served as poet-in-residence for the New England National Scenic Trail (NET) during 2016-17. He is currently poetry editor of Connecticut Woodlands, the quarterly magazine of the Connecticut Forest & Park Association. He is deputy town historian of Canton, and also served 26 years as a volunteer firefighter.
Leff recently coedited “New England Nature,” an anthology of early nature and environmental writing, and is in the process of editing “Echoes from Walden: Verse Inspired by the Life and Work of Henry David Thoreau,” scheduled for publication early in 2022. “The Breach,” David’s novel in verse about a small Connecticut mill town, won a silver medal for Best Northeast Regional Fiction from the Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY). It was also a finalist for the Spirit of Connecticut award from the Connecticut Book Awards.
Leff wrote a little poetry as a college student and continued to read it occasionally in the years afterward, but it wasn’t until he attended a poetry reading by the well-known poet Rennie McQuilkin in 2007 that he was inspired to get more involved with poetry. Leff had recently finished his second nonfiction book. He told McQuilkin that an important goal of his writing was to help people see the familiar in a new light. McQuilkin thought poetry was the perfect medium for that and challenged Leff to write a few poems. He continued to encourage Leff with his poetry. Leff was hooked.
“People who invite poetry into their lives grow in ways never expected,” Leff said. “Poetry has the power to convey messages of deep meaning and emotional weight in few words . ... Poems also bring beauty and joy into our increasingly rushed and complicated lives through the music of words and fresh imagery of language.”
The poems Leff writes are about relationships: between and among people, with the natural world, and with a greater spiritual power.