Today I received an email from the original man of the blog himself, our very own Alan, who very gently and quietly reminded me that his friend, author David K. Leff, would be reading and signing books at my favorite bookstore this afternoon. So off I went at 2:00 to hear David Leff talk about his book, Deep Travel: In Thoreau’s Wake on the Concord and Merrimack. His talk and his book are about what he calls, “a methodology for looking.” They’re about looking mindfully at the everyday places and things and thereby gaining an understanding of their history and man’s part in it.
I lifted part of a review of the book from Amazon: “Leff follows Thoreau’s paddle-strokes not only by traveling the same rivers, but by creating a ‘fusion of inward and outward experience,’ incorporating essay-like musing about time and place—and the power of both stories and history to evoke them. Deep Travel is a primer on the art of ‘sight-seeking’ and ‘forensic observation,’ and Leff offers penetrating readings of the river, the vernacular landscape, and Thoreau.”—Ian Marshall, author, Peak Experiences: Walking Meditations on Literature, Nature, and Need and Walden by Haiku
David’s talk was very interesting and now I’m dying to get started on the book. Outside the Hickory Stick we all posed for photos for the blogs. David Leff has one too. It’s here.
Now, I hesitate to show these pictures, but I will, as it will serve as a lesson to all you ladies. This afternoon, as I headed out after hours squinting at my computer, I looked in the mirror and considered applying makeup. Just a little mascara. Then I actually thought: why bother, I’ll just have to take it off later. And I also had the completely delusional thought: at a certain age, women look quite lovely without any makeup at all.
Somebody actually said that to me recently. That women look “softer” without makeup at a certain age. Well, how’s this for “soft”?
That’s me with Alan, above. Yes, my face is so soft that my eyes have completely disappeared.
Here I am with David Leff:
Yes, I’m displaying my man hands. No, I don’t usually wear my wedding ring. Yes, I’m married. Any other questions?
David Leff also writes poetry and so I will close with a poem that I lifted from his website:
Halftones
by David K Leff
Bathed in drizzle at dawn, I walk down to the river without
coffee or shower, the haze of slumber not yet fully lifted.
I’m quieted by a world hushed in a glaze of moisture. Light
slowly leaks into a dingy sky, creeps silently without wind
as fugitive wisps of ragged clouds drag mist across hills of
dew-lit grass. All is a muted charcoal smudge,
a sketchbook landscape. Deep within the fog, on a leaden
millpond framed by a fretwork of gray tree-branch
shadows, geese softly echo each other, hoarsely calling
to ignite a pallid morning growing as vivid as the video
dreams that stirred me from sleep.
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