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Books
by Mattie Stepanek
Heartsongs
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Journey Through Heartsongs
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Celebrate Through Heartsongs
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Loving
Through Heartsongs
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Mattie
Stepanek: A Tribute
By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye
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Every journey begins
With a small step.
And every day is a chance
For a new, small step
In the right direction.
Just follow your heartsong
—Mattie Stepanek, late American child poet.
I want people to know that in every life,
there are storms. But we must remember to
play after every storm and to celebrate the
gift of life as we have it, or else life
becomes a task, rather than a gift. We must
always listen to the song in our heart, and
share that song with others.
—Mattie Stepanek. |
In the Summer of
2003, I publsihed an essay on Mattie Stepanek (http://www.mattieonline.com/about.htm),
the then 12 year old and terminally sick poet in
Rockville, whose five volumes of poetry had sold
millions of copies. Indeed, three out of the five
volumes had made the New York Times Best Seller
List.
But, sadly, on
Tuesday, June 22, 2004, at the Children’s National
Medical Centre in Washington, Mattie Stepanek passed on,
as a result of complications related to muscular
dystrophy, the disease he had battled with since he was
born. He was only 13.
Mattie’s life
and story had a way of melting one’s heart each time one
encountered him. He began writing poetry at the tender
age of three. Although he had this terminal illness,
Mattie was able, with his very appealing poems and
emotional speeches, to affect the lives of many people
around the world.
Each time I read
his poetry or anything written about him, my heart
melted, tears came to my eyes, and I longed to hug him,
pray for him, say nice things to him, and see him get
well and indeed possess in full the life he loved and
celebrated so much.
It was amazing
how a child so sick and dying could inspire so much
confidence in others and make them see reasons to
“celebrate life” despite the odds.
After watching
Mattie’s appearance on OPRAH WINFREY SHOW,
81-year old Elizabeth Haestie said: “I ‘met’ Mattie for
the first time on the Oprah show. I am an 81-year old
English lady, in good health, but sometimes feel
somewhat depressed that I don’t have a great many more
years ahead of me in this life. But Mattie has knocked
all the feelings out of my mind altogether, and I don’t
think they will ever return. I am an ‘old soul’ too,
Mattie, as you are and I shall remember you and your
mother all the rest of my life.”
Heartsongs:
That’s one word that dominates Mattie’s poetry. It
forms part of all his best-selling titles. Mattie’s
consistent counsel was: life may be full of stress and
pains, but never allow them overwhelm you, resist
despair, don’t allow yourself to sink … listen to your
‘heartsong,’ the profound melody that rings deep down
your heart… discover it, follow its rhythm, and usher
sunshine into your life and others.
In 2001, VSP
Books collaborated with Hyperion books to publish
Mattie’s maiden book of poems,
HEARTSONGS. It was a venture that turned out an
outstanding success. Mattie soon became a national
bestseller and an American celebrity.
At 11, Mattie
introduced himself thus: “My name is Mattie Joseph
Thaddeus Stepanek. I am almost 11 years old, and I
home-school, doing a high school curriculum. I began
writing poetry when I was about 3 years old, and now
have a collection that contains thousands of poems,
dozens of illustrations. I have even bound some of my
books at home, and a bound anthology of my writing was
presented to the Library of Congress during the Fall of
2000. I have also won many awards for my writing,
including the Melinda A. Lawrence International Book
Award in 1999 for ‘most inspirational work.’ I have a
rare form of muscular dystrophy called mitochondrial myopathy, and I also have
something called dysautonomia. That means
that ‘my automatic’ systems, like breathing, heart rate,
body temperature, oxygenation, digestion, and things
like that don’t always work well on their own. So, I use
extra oxygen all the time, and when I am tired or
sleeping I use a ventilator that breathes for me and
save energy and move my medical equipment around. My two
brothers and one sister died during childhood from the
same thing I have, and my mother uses a wheelchair all
the time because she has the adult form of this
disability.”
In 2001, Mattie
was appointed the Maryland Goodwill Ambassador for the
Muscular Dystrophy Association. A regular face at big
events where he spread the message of peace and hope,
his enthusiasm and positive outlook despite his fragile
state was the challenge many distressed people needed to
go on living. He featured regularly at fundraising
events aimed at helping the efforts to find a cure for
neuromuscular diseases, and offer support to affected
children and their families, to go on “celebrating life”
till a cure is found. Mattie told Washington Post
in 2001 that he believed a cure would be found for this
disease, maybe after his life time.
With these
books,
Heartsongs,
Journey Through Heartsongs,
Celebrate Through Heartsongs
and
Loving
Through Heartsongs (released in 2003 by Hyperion
Books), Mattie’s pride of place in American poetry was
firmly established. Cheryl Barnes, who with her husband,
Peter, and their company VSP Books collected Mattie’s
poems which they issued in a paperback in a 2001
collection, told Washington Post that she
“had a hard time believing a child could write with such
wisdom…He’s bright beyond his years. He is a truly
remarkable child.”
Former U.S.
president, Jimmy Carter, became Mattie’s hero due to his
global peace efforts and rigorous disease-eradication
campaigns. In September 2001, while Mattie was confined
to a hospital bed in the intensive care unit, staff
members of the hospital arranged for him a 15 minute
telephone chat with Carter where Mattie raised such
issues as the problems in Bosnia and Africa.
Surprisingly, he did not talk about his ill-health.
Highly affected
by this brief encounter with such an exceptional child,
Carter decided to write the foreword to Mattie’s next
book,
Journey Through Heartsongs. But
Mattie and Carter were to meet face-to-face when Dianne
Sawyer featured both of them on her live television
show, “Good Morning, America.”
Mattie’s speech
during his October 19, 2001 appearance on OPRAH
TV Show dwelt on his desire to be a peacemaker in the
world and his love for life and poetry. Oprah Winfrey
was so moved by the passionate concern of this ailing
little boy for peace in a world that had no answer to
his health problems that she had to exclaim, after
reading her favourite lines from Mattie’s poetry: “I
think that’s so important, especially now, when
everybody is feeling a sense of fear and having been
terrorized, to look at what you have in your life and
have a sense of gratitude and see the miracles in your
life. And you, even though you’re hooked up to all this
equipment, and we had to plug you in during the
commercial break, give you more oxygen, you still see
miracles everyday in your life.”
Definitely
Mattie Stepanek couldn’t have seen his first birthday
were he a Nigerian boy, let alone dream about writing
poetry. Where are the medical facilities in Obasanjo’s
Nigeria to sustain the precious life of a boy so sick,
so tender, and yet so amazingly gifted?
And to America
still horribly inebriated with unspeakable racial
prejudices, Mattie has penned down the following
lines:
|
We are many colours
We are many languages . .
.
We are many countries . .
.
But we are one with the earth…
So we must live as one
family. |
After my piece
on Mattie in the summer of 2003, Ms. Jeni Stepanek, 47,
Mattie’s Mom, sent me a very moving e-mail and said: “I
was surfing the net…(and) came across …your article
about Mattie, and was so touched by your words. Mattie’s
reward in life, is the ability to touch others deep in
their (lives) such that it makes a difference to them
…Thank you, and perhaps we will meet you during August.
Take care, Jeni Stepanek (“Mattie’s mom)”
My heart goes
out today to wheelchair-bound Jeni Stepanek, who, now
left alone with Mattie’s exit, sips the juice of
sorrows.
Please, Jeni,
listen to your heartsong, as Mattie would counsel, and
let God’s healing light into your life. The Muscular
Dystrophy Association (MDA) has lost a rare gem and
great pillar of support. But they will never lose the
sympathy of this writer.
I loved Mattie.
His death was such a rude shock. His poetry, the product
of a child’s mind…very simple lines, yet very insightful
and deeply touching, and his exceptional life, have left
an indelible mark on me.
Good Night,
Child.
Ugochukwu
Ejinkeonye
writes a column
(SCRUPLES) in The Independent (www.independentngonline.com every
Wednesday. Email:
scruples2006@yahoo.com:
BlOG:
www.ugochukwu.blog.com
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Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in
America
By Melissa V.
Harris-Perry
According to the
author, this society has historically exerted
considerable pressure on black females to fit into one
of a handful of stereotypes, primarily, the Mammy, the
Matriarch or the Jezebel. The selfless
Mammy’s behavior is marked by a slavish devotion to
white folks’ domestic concerns, often at the expense of
those of her own family’s needs. By contrast, the
relatively-hedonistic Jezebel is a sexually-insatiable
temptress. And the Matriarch is generally thought of as
an emasculating figure who denigrates black men, ala the
characters Sapphire and Aunt Esther on the television
shows Amos and Andy and Sanford and Son, respectively.
Professor Perry
points out how the propagation of these harmful myths
have served the mainstream culture well. For instance,
the Mammy suggests that it is almost second nature for
black females to feel a maternal instinct towards
Caucasian babies.
As for the source
of the Jezebel, black women had no control over their
own bodies during slavery given that they were being
auctioned off and bred to maximize profits. Nonetheless,
it was in the interest of plantation owners to propagate
the lie that sisters were sluts inclined to mate
indiscriminately.
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A Wreath for Emmett Till
By Marilyn Nelson; Illustrated by
Philippe Lardy
This memorial to
the lynched teen is in the Homeric
tradition of poet-as-historian. It is a
heroic crown of sonnets in Petrarchan
rhyme scheme and, as such, is quite
formal not only in form but in language.
There are 15 poems in the cycle, the
last line of one being the first line of
the next, and each of the first lines
makes up the entirety of the 15th. This
chosen formality brings distance and
reflection to readers, but also calls
attention to the horrifically ugly
events. The language is highly
figurative in one sonnet, cruelly
graphic in the next. The illustrations
echo the representative nature of the
poetry, using images from nature and
taking advantage of the emotional
quality of color. There is an
introduction by the author, a page about
Emmett Till, and literary and poetical
footnotes to the sonnets. —School
Library Journal |
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The White Masters
of the World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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Negro Digest / Black World
Browse all issues
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Enjoy!
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The
Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
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The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
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Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
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January 1, 1804 -- The Founding
of Haiti
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update
18 May 2012
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