Free Producer by Wendy Walker Page A

poet. I didn’t warm up to the idea at first, but when
     I saw how excited my staff was about him, I decided to take a second look. After all, I hired them because they were smart
     and if I didn’t listen to them, that would be self-defeating. I heard their arguments and opinions and I decided to defer.
     On April 17, 2002, Mattie Stepanek appeared on our show, despite my initial reluctance.
    STEPANEK: The doctors didn’t think I would live one day, but I did. So they said, okay, he’s not going to last six months. I did. Then
     they said, okay, we’re drawing the line at two years old, three years, or he’s going to die by then, and you might as well
     let him go now. And my mom said, no. I’m going to train this spirit. So I lived to be two, and they said, okay, five, five,
     five is it. Then I lived to be five, and then they said ten. And here I am, an eleven-year-old. So now they’re saying teens
     or sometime as a young adult, but I plan to be 101. [When my sibling] died, I sort of didn’t understand death. I wasn’t expecting
     it. And I knew to say,my brother Jamie died. But I didn’t know what it meant. And that’s mainly how my poetry started.
    KING: Yes, tell me about that.
    STEPANEK: Well, I didn’t even know it was poetry at first. I was just talking and playing. And 95, maybe even 99 percent of my early
     works were about Jamie’s death. And then I learned it’s poetry, my mom told me. And I asked her to write it down for me. And
     I said, wow, this is a way I can express my feelings, in a way that I can cope with this hard life and others can understand
     it.
    KING: You never took writing lessons? So you are what might be called a natural poet?
    STEPANEK: Yes… my poetry’s about all kinds of different things. It began about Jamie and then it evolved into things like nature, friendships,
     challenges, hopes. And the big theme is peace. I talk about peace in many different ways so that everyone likes it, it appeals
     to all people and so that everyone understands it.
    KING: What do you mean by
Heart Songs
[the title of his book of poems]?
    STEPANEK: A heart song is your inner beauty. It’s your inner message. It’s what you feel you want to do. In my case, my heart song is
     to hear my heart song and help others to hear theirs as well. And teaching heart songs does not mean, this is my heart song,
     now it is yours. Everyone has a different heart song and the differences are what make them beautiful. And we are a mosaic
     of gifts. And we need to choose to put those pieces together, not spread them apart.
    He recited an original poem called “Making Real Sense of the Senses”:
Our eyes are for looking at things,
    But they’re 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 for tasting, but also for saying words like
    I love you and thank you God for all of these things.
    I’m so glad I listened to my staff and changed my mind about booking Mattie. I really had no idea how profound and loving
     this eleven-year-old boy was, the effect he would have on everyone, including me, and how much the public would relate to
     him. In fact, this show that I very nearly passed on was nominated for an Emmy award.
    Mattie and I attended the award show together in New York and we had a great time. He worked the room in his automated wheelchair,
     which I called his go-kart, and we held hands when they announced the winner. We didn’t get the Emmy. My heart broke for him,
     but we both had a terrific night to remember. When Mattie died in 2004 at age thirteen, he left behind a legacy that we had
     featured on our show.
    The point is, it takes a highly organized operation, including me and my staff, to pull off a different, information-filled
     show