In the video above Jeff Moredock recites his poem, “If A Tree Falls in the Woods, Does Anyone Care?” and introduces the inspiration: trees obstructing his view of Lake Champlain from his home at the Crater Club in Essex, NY. The poem is dated August 19, 2015, and it is included in Jeff’s poetry anthology, Poems from Essex & Elsewhere.

The Poem

If A Tree Falls in the Woods, Does Anyone Care?

I thought that I would never see
A poem as lovely as a tree
But then a watery blue did make
A view serene that made me take
A point of view set on a lake

But o’er the years the trees did grow
As I watched my lake view slowly go
First the lake and then far shore
Soon Camel’s Hump will be no more

No longer do I love all trees
Especially those that do not please
Growing up to make a screen
A wall of wood, a scrim of green

So now I say grab saw and axe
Let’s give them all a few good whacks
And to those known as Tree Huggers
I say move over for Tree Muggers

— 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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