Child inspires through poems

Stepanek

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Eleven-year-old Mattie Stepanek was born with a rare form of muscular dystrophy and a rare talent for poetry.

He has fought one, nurtured the other and, in both endeavors, flowered as few children his age ever have.

Stepanek suffers from dysautonomic mitochondrial myopathy, a rare form of muscular dystrophy that killed three of his siblings and has left him confined to a wheelchair. He looks tiny in his wheeled device, but his plans are nothing if not gigantic.

Stepanek is a best-selling author of three books of poetry. He began composing poems as toddler, reciting them to his mother, who would type them for him. His third book, "Hope Through Heartsongs," was published earlier this month, and is No. 13 on The New York Times best-seller list.

WATCH ON CNN TV Larry King talks with Mattie about his poetry bestsellers, and his amazing story of hope, strength, courage and optimism on "Larry King Live ," 9 p.m. ET tonight   RESOURCES Learn more about Mattie, and read some of his poetry

How did he become a renowned poet at an age when others are mastering the use of a ballpoint? a bicycle? Stepanek credits a positive attitude.

"Sometimes I say, 'Why me? Why have I had such a hard life? Why have my siblings died? Why does it not go away?' " he said in an interview on CNN's "Larry King Live," which airs in its entirety at 9 p.m. ET Wednesday.

"And then I think again, why not me?" he said. "Better me than a kid who already has stress on his life. Or better me than a baby who wouldn't understand it and has a better chance of hurting more."

That attitude, he said, has allowed him to confound a group of grownups not accustomed to being shown up by a kid – his physicians.

"The doctors didn't think I would live one day. But I did. So they said, 'OK, he's not gonna last six months.' But I did... So I lived to be 2 and they said, 'OK, 5 -- 5, 5 is it.' I lived to be 5. And then they said, '10'," Stepanek said.

"And here I am at 11 years old. So now they are saying 'teens, or some time as a young adult,' but I plan to be 101."