Hi,
I think summer is finally here! Yippee! It’s been warm and sunny for three days in a row now. As I’m writing this, the sun is streaming through the window and the view is wonderful. Admittedly, the view is of lots of buildings, but it definitely looks better in the sunshine.
I’ve been asked a few times now, when I’m going to write the next book as a follow up to Orson’s Lessons in Wealth. The question always comes from children who have read the book, which is very encouraging for me. Whenever I get this question, I always ask what they liked about this book. Frequently, the children say they enjoyed the poems or songs.
I have always enjoyed writing poems, they are never serious, moody ones; always happy or funny ones. So rather than write another story book straight away, I thought I’d give a longer poem a go. It is still going to be on the same theme as the first book but tells a bit of the backstory of Egg Man Jeff and Logan the chicken.
I thought I’d share with you the first couple of verse in the poem just to see what you think. The final version is probably going to be around 60 verses. Once complete I’m going to make it available online for free so watch out for it.
I hope you enjoy…
The Ballad of Egg Man Jeff
This song of rags to riches Is a tale of dreams come true,
Of how our hero’s wishes of a wealthy lifestyle grew
From a friendship with a chicken, and the spark of an idea,
And a plan put into action, that began a new career.
Our hero, Jeffry Jefferson, grew up in poverty
With no wealth education, life was just a lottery.
He hoped to win a fortune, hoped his numbers would come up
But little did he realise, that true wealth needs more than luck.
When Jeffry was still young and had the whole world at his feet
He thought, “I need to earn a wage, to pay the rent and eat”
He found work on a farm, doing chores and feeding hens
And fixing up the barn, and washing pigs and cleaning pens.
The work was hard, the hours were long, the mucking out was smelly,
But Jeffry earned enough to pay his bills and fill his belly.
He slaved away from dawn ‘til dusk, the toil seemed without end
And he thought, “This would be simpler if I did it with a friend.”
Determined he would find a chum, a buddy, pal and mate
He created an advertisement and pinned it to the gate.
The sign said “Wanted Friend. For information, come inside.”
But the advert didn’t do well – just a single egg applied.
To be continued…
What do you think??
Karl