Instructions for a Funeral
A Poem by David K. Leff
A selection from the collection, Blue Marble Gazetteer
Instructions for a Funeral
Burn me down and carry me up
to the heights where my soul soared
when two legs could muscle
their way to ledgy outcrops
looking toward distant hills.
Release to the breeze what fire
can’t devour, float it among branches
of oak, yellow birch, and hemlock
to settle in humus where roots will find me.
Cast a handful like bread
on the Farmington to float by familiar
trees, farms, hills, factories
and homes, a last goodbye
before reaching seawater
where I’ll dissolve in an ocean
that birthed life
and to which all things terrestrial return.
Forget flowers until spring
when forest ephemerals arise in margins
of warming sun and unfurling leaves.
In the woods and air you will find me
among hepatica’s delicate pink
abloom in a last snow, and as fiddleheads
unwind beside nodding bells of trout
lily and feathery leaves of squirrel corn.
I’ll be there, always, to refresh your spirit.
David K. Leff is an award-winning poet and essayist, and former deputy commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection. He is the Canton, Connecticut poet laureate, deputy town historian, and town meeting moderator. He was a volunteer firefighter for 26 years.
In 2016 and 2017 David was appointed by the National Park Service to serve as poet-in-residence for the New England National Scenic Trail (NET). He has been nominated three times for a Pushcart Prize, and has twice been a finalist in the Connecticut Book Awards. David has received two silver medals from the Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY), and was grand prize short-listed for the Eric Hoffer Book Award. His work has appeared in anthologies, newspapers such as the Hartford Courant, and magazines including Appalachia and Yankee.
The author of seven nonfiction books, three volumes of poetry, and two novels in verse, David’s work focuses on the connection of people to their communities and the natural environment. He often explores commonplace elements of the world around us that have hidden meanings and unusual links to each other.
David has been the book review editor of Connecticut Woodlands, the quarterly magazine of the Connecticut Forest & Park Association and is now poetry editor. He is a staff writer for The Wayfarer Magazine.
David’s papers are located at the Special Collections and University Archives, UMass/Amherst.
View his work at www.davidkleff.com
