In the video above Jeff Moredock recites his poem, “Excess Day in the Village of Essex” while standing closer to the southern end of Main Street, about as far as the furthest of the many street vendors reach on Essex Day! The poem is dated June 2013, and it is included in Jeff’s poetry anthology, Poems from Essex & Elsewhere.

The Poem

Excess Day in the Village of Essex

On the eve of Excess Day
Husbands and wives
Can be heard
Bickering back and forth
Trying to determine whose excess
Must leave the house

Husbands cling to old rods and reels
Wives insist they need their curling irons
Small children hide balls and dolls
They haven’t played with for years
Dogs hide their worn-out chew toys

When dawn breaks on Excess Day
The sidewalks are lined with the
Detritus of daily life
Fishing reels curling irons balls
And dolls and much much more

Crowds sweep down the street
In search of bargains treasures or
Just something they don’t have
And don’t need or so say
Husbands to wives
And wives to husbands

By mid-day prices begin to drop
As the throngs begin to thin
Books birdhouses bar stools
Pottery paintings and more
Fly off the sidewalks and
Before long the day is ended

One family’s excess is now another
Family’s excess and sure to be seen
Next year on the
Other side of the street

— McClain Jeffrey Moredock

The Author

McClain Jeffrey Moredock has worked as a farmhand, a lifeguard, a surveyor, a minister, a chaplain, a teacher, a coach, a head of school, and a chief operating officer. And, like many of his contemporaries, he retired at 65 and immediately began consulting. Five years later, weary of air travel and motel beds, he retired for good.

Jeff credits “whatever writing ability I have” to an unmedicated case of ADD and an inability to stop free-associating. In addition to Poems from Essex & Elsewhere, he has also published a collection of short stories entitled, Nine Holes, Nine Lives: The Front Nine.

Jeff has also published other works on the Essex community blog, which you can find in his author archives.

The Book

Poems from Essex & Elsewhere collects four decades of Jeff Moredock’s poetry. The first twelve poems in the book present playful portraits of life in the small village of Essex in upstate New York, and the rest — twenty five poems and three song lyrics — chart the ironies and poignancies of another dozen places the author has lived. The book was published by Essex Editions on December 2, 2016.

Copies of Poems from Essex & Elsewhere are available for purchase through Essex Editions and Amazon.

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