I'm just 13 years old. I love going to school, I love books and I found I have a talent for writing poetry. I write by blinking out words and phrases. I've won lots of awards for writing including the 2010 Brit Writers Outstanding Achievement Award; a gold Blue Peter badge, the Young Scotland 2011 Rising Star Award & 2012 Young Scot Arts Award. Last year one of my poems Christmas Gibbons was set to music and launched as a Christmas Hit for the local children’s hospice. I spend lots of time in hospital, so like to be busy when I am well. I like history; science; sport and lots of other things.
What inspires you to write your poems?
My pet dog Charlie has inspired one of my poems; also things I learn about, for example, learning about the rainforest inspired me to include gibbons in my poem “Christmas Gibbons”. I was inspired to write “Coming Out of the Ghettos” after visiting a conference on disabled children’s rights where I heard some disabled kids from Northern Ireland talking about campaigning for their rights. I also like to make people laugh and smile with my poems, some of them are quite funny, at least I hope they are.
How do you write your poems?
It can take me a long time to write a poem, weeks or even months. I write by blinking to communicate. I write poems in different ways. Usually when I have an idea for a poem the person helping me will log on to the internet and find a list of words on the right topic, for example, the summer or Christmas. They will ask me first what I want my poem to be about, although now days I am often asked to write poems by others on particular topics. For example, I was asked by my school to write a poem about Scotland for Burns Night and I was asked by Yorkhill Children’s Foundation to write a poem about Yorkhill hospital for their anniversary.
The helper will then read out the words and I will blink to tell them which words to put on the list of possible words for my poems. They will do the same with lists of adjectives and adverbs. Once I have lots of words, the person helping me will ask me if I have all the words I want and I will blink yes or no. If I don’t have all the words I want, I will spell out words using a spelling chart. The chart has vowels listed down the rights side and consonants going across. I will tell my helper which vowel row the letter is on and then blink for the right letters as they are read out. I can also do this without the chart. In that case my helper will ask me if I want a vowel or a consonant and I will blink to tell them and they will then go through either the vowels or the consonants and I will blink for the one I want.
When I have all my words my helper will ask me which one goes first and read out the words and I will blink until all the words are in the right order. Sometimes I will use on line rhyming dictionaries to find a good rhyme. I will then go through the poem and put in all the punctuation. My helper will read each word and I will blink if I want punctuation added. I will then blink to choose punctuation from a list. You can see why writing a poem takes me such a long time. Also because of my health problems I can often only work for a short time before I get too tired and have to take a rest. I often stop and start taking wee power naps. Also if I am really unwell I cannot work on any poems so often don’t write any for long spells if I am in hospital, which I am very often.
I wrote one poem “Green Fish” using a poetry kit of magnetic words. That was much quicker, as I just had to blink to say the order of the words, but I can’t write most poems that way, as I will be limited to the words in the kit.
Please tell us more about your charity work and your latest work on iTunes and your support for Children's Hospice Association Scotland?
One of my hobbies is raising money for charity. Last year I raised money for three charities, all who work with children with disabilities. I have a trike and I have raised money for one charity for a trike ride, but because the weather has been so bad here in Scotland and my health was really bad last year, I haven’t done the ride yet. I am determined to do it in the spring. I held a book bring and buy with lots of help from friends for another charity. This included a raffle of books by well known authors. I wrote to authors, some of whom I had met at the Edinburgh Book Festival, which I love to visit every year, and they donated signed books for me to raffle, for example, Michael Morpurgo sent me a signed copy of Warhorse.
Perhaps my most exciting charity venture so far was “Christmas Gibbons”. My poem was set to music by a LA based musician, who recorded it as a single. A real awesome animation was also made. The song was launched on iTunes. It got to number 2 in the UK ITunes Children's Music Chart; was in the same chart in Canada & Australia, it also got into the main UK chart and got publicity all around the world. I was even on the news in Australia.
I also wrote a poem for the Yorkhill Children’s Foundation, which raises money for Yorkhill Children’s Hospital.
So far all the charities I have raised money for are ones that have helped me. I like to show people that I can help too, as well as needing people to help me.
How did it feel to receive the Brit Writers Special Award in 2010 and how have things been for you since?
I felt really excited to win the Brit Award in 2010, it was such a special evening and I was really happy people like my poems. The press were very interested to know more about me when I won my award and I also got letters of congratulations from Scotland’s First Minister, the Prime Minister and the Queen. I like chatting to people about my poems and awards, it is much more interesting than people asking me about my health problems.
Since then I have written more poems and won several more awards. It has led to lots of fun and opportunities and I hope shown people what I can do.
How important are initiatives such as Brit Writers and our schools programmes from your experience with The Royal School for the Blind? What would you like to say to our network of partners and supporters who enable us to do this?
I am really pleased the Royal Blind School entered me into the Brit Writers Awards, as winning an award has led to lots of opportunities for me, which I probably would not have had. However, soon after I won the award I moved to mainstream primary school, because people thought this was more suitable for me. I have loved being in my mainstream primary and do really well with all my school work. I think winning the Brit Writers Award helped people to notice how much I can do and how a clever I am. I think may be, I would not have been given the opportunity to go to mainstream school and learn so much if I had not won my Brit Writers Award.
What advice would you give to new writers and poets?
Enjoy writing and write about things that make you happy. You need to be determined and work hard. Don’t be put off by people telling you that you can’t do something, particularly if they don’t really know you.
What's next for Adam Bojelian?
This year I move to high school. I am very excited but a bit anxious about that. I want to continue to write poems and to work hard at my school work and have more fun. I hope to stay out of hospital and spend time with my friends.
I would love my poems to be published in an illustrated book for children as I think they would like lots of my poems. It would also show others what you can do if you work hard.
And some final words from Adam's Mum, Zoe Bojelian...My husband and I are immensely proud of Adam. He has achieved so much through sheer determination and hard work. He never gives up, despite all the challenges he faces. Adam’s poetry has brought a lot of joy into our lives and his awards have given us all opportunities and brought us into contact with people we would never have known. Each time he achieves something amazing, we think he has reached the pinnacle, then he goes on to achieve something even more amazing. Goodness knows what he will achieve next!
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