Mods - I am sorry that I am posting this here and not in the poetry section. Sorry, I don’t know Urdu, if you insist that it has to go over there I have no problems.
I just want to share the talent of this very gifted sensitive 13 year old who was severely handicapped.
He died yesterday.
Child poet (Severely Handicapped) Mattie Stepanek dies
Mattie Stepanek, a child poet whose inspirational verse made him a best-selling writer and a prominent muscular dystrophy advocate, died yesterday from complications of the disease. He was 13.
Mattie had dysautonomic mitochondrial myopathy, a genetic disease that impaired almost all of his body’s major functions.
His mother, Jeni, 44, has the adult-onset form of the disease, and his three older siblings died of it in early childhood.
Mattie began writing poetry at 3 to cope with the death of a brother. In 2001, a slim volume of his poems, Heartsongs, was published.
The book reached the top of the New York Times best-seller list. He wrote four more books.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3574453&thesection=news&thesubsection=world
Samples of some of his works. Very sensitive for such a young person.
**For Our World ** September 12, 2001
We need to stop.
Just stop.
Stop for a moment
Before anybody
Says or does anything
That may hurt anyone else.
We need to be silent.
Just silent.
Silent for a moment
Before we forever lose
The blessing of songs
That grow in our hearts.
We need to notice.
Just notice.
Notice for a moment
Before the future slips away
Into ashes and dust of humility.
Stop, be silent, and notice
In so many ways, we are the same.
Our differences are unique treasures.
We have, we are, a mosaic of gifts
To nurture, to offer, to accept.
We need to be.
Just be.
Be for a moment
Kind and gentle, innocent and trusting,
Like children and lambs,
Never judging or vengeful
Like the judging and vengeful.
And now, let us pray,
Differently, yet together,
Before there is no earth, no life,
No chance for peace.
**Making Real Sense of the Senses ** April 1995
Our eyes are for looking at things,
But they are also for crying
When we are very happy or very sad.
Our ears are for listening,
But so are our hearts.
Our noses are for smelling food,
But also the wind and the grass and
If we try very hard, butterflies.
Our hands are for feeling,
But also for hugging and touching so gently.
Our mouths and tongues are for tasting,
But also for saying words, like
“I love you,” and
“Thank You, God. For all of these things.”
**Revolutions: 365.25 ** - December 2001
When the moon sets
Over your shoulder
As the sun rises
Bright towards your face,
What’s in the middle?
Your life is…
Filled with choices
For each moment, each place.
We live between the
Past and the future,
In the moment of our
Here, now, today.
Can we cope with the
Daily life stresses?
If we humbly accept…
We must pray.