In the video above Jeff Moredock recites his poem, “Transfer Station” that he wrote in 2014. The reading took place in the back yard of the Adirondack Art Association that hosted the book launch event for his poetry anthology Poems from Essex & Elsewhere. (Although this poem doesn’t appear in that anthology.)

The Poem

Transfer Station

Every town has a dump
Some have credentials
Many rooted in old habits
All piled high with the
Detritus of destiny
The old making way for the new

But here in Our Town
We have a Transfer Station
A place where
Pass the trash and
In for a buck is not a game

Just a dollar a pound
Unload the unneeded
The unnecessary, the
Bad and the ugly
Only the good live again
Recycled, reborn, reused

The large scale weighs the
Refuse of our lives and we
Wait while our ticket is punched
Always with the Big Question
Really the only question
Will my end be like this

When I am no longer needed
No longer necessary
Will I be rubbish or renewal
Rejected or recycled

For…no matter how
We lead our lives
We all end up at
The Transfer Station

— 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. He has published an anthology of his poems in a book entitled, Poems from Essex & Elsewhere available in print and digital format. In addition, he has also published a collection of short stories entitled, Nine Holes, Nine Lives: The Front Nine available only as an ebook.

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

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