Inspired Minds

April, 2024

A School Magazine for Creative Trailblazers

2024

Experiencing the Magic of 2D Animation at School

When Photography Becomes a Lifestyle - Victoria Yaneva Opens up about Her Hobby

Dive into the World of Poetry with the Master of the Poetic Tide - Steve Wheeler

Life after Graduation - How to Make Plans for the Future?

The Poet of the Soul

Steve Wheeler is a former academic who has a profound passion for poetry. He is an eloquent bard, whose words flow like a river in the realm of the human heart. He is also a founder of the publishing house Wheelsong Books which publishes Wheelsong Poetry Anthologies – books which raise money for a charitable organisation called Save the Children.
Beloslava Angelova from 12th A grade asks the prototypical poet to share some of his secrets about his style and his latest book Nocturne (2023), as well as Wheelsong Poetry Anthology 3 (2023), which features the work of more than 120 poets.

Do you come from a literary background?
No, I don’t. But I’ve been reading literary works for many years. I started reading works by people like J. R. R. Tolkien Lord of the Rings – that was an amazing series of books that got my imagination going, British poets like Dylan Thomas, contemporary poets like John Cooper Clarke, American poets like Allen Ginsberg.

What writers did you enjoy reading as a child?
There was a children’s writer, an English woman, called Enid Blyton. She wrote a whole series of books for children about a group of children called The Famous Five (there were only four of them but they had a dog as well to make them five) - I used to read that. As I said I also read J. R. R. Tolkien Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which was all fantasy. But then I got into science fiction and I started reading Robert Heinlein and Isaac Asimov.

When did you start writing poetry?
I must have been 8-9 years old when I started writing and the first poem I wrote was for a school competition. I didn’t realise at the time that I copied some parts. I don’t like plagiarism but at the age of 8 it was a launching pad for me. Fortunately, I never did it again. In my teens, I was writing rather absurd stuff because I was reading rather strange poems. I also studied Art at college and I studied some rather strange artists, people who would now be considered as modern art, people like Andy Warhol and Wassily Kandinsky, Roy Lichtenstein.

Has poetry changed your life?
No, I wouldn’t say poetry has changed my life. Other things have changed my life: getting married, having children and grandchildren, becoming a Christian - all of those things have changed my life. I would say poetry has enriched my life, enhanced it and given it a different dimension. Certainly, I would never be without poetry because it has become a part of me and I write whenever I want to write.

Can you describe the process of creating a poem? How long does the whole process take?
No, I couldn’t describe it because it is different every time – sometimes a poem comes to you and it is one line, sometimes it is an idea, sometimes it is a picture, sometimes it is from a conversation or from a song that you’ve heard, from a book you’ve read, sometimes it is from walking along the street, looking down and seeing a discarded piece of rubbish on the floor - that could be inspiration. Sometimes a poem comes to you and you are finished in 5 minutes, sometimes it takes years.

How does the title of a poem contribute to its overall meaning?
Oh, I think the title is really important, the title is the front door to entering the house of the poem. It’s a shop window. If your title is really catchy, then people would probably read the rest of it.

How do you decide on the structure and form of the poems?
That comes from the idea, I don’t really work on it. It can be a free form, it can be a quatrain, a villanelle or a sonnet. But generally speaking, the form takes care of itself.

What was your inspiration for your latest poetry book Nocturne? Is there a specific event or experience in your life that influenced that book?
I had a lot of poems about night time, about dreaming and about the fantasy of the darkness and I felt that I had to put together a volume based on that. It is also about romance, about love, about loss and trauma but that all comes as a garnish of the book being about the night.

Animation Creating GIF by Mytikah - O Livro dos Heróis

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Contemporary Poetry

Can you tell us more about the cause of publishing Wheelsong Poetry Anthology 3?
Wheelsong Poetry Anthology 3 (as well as the previous two anthologies) is published for the sole purpose of raising money for children who are in crisis. And you probably know if you read the blurb on the cover that the profits from the sales on Amazon go towards helping children to get food, to get shelter, to get medical care, even to get education. The publishing company donates the money to Save the Children, which is an international relief fund. And wherever there are children in crisis, for instance, in Gaza at the moment or coming out of Ukraine, you find that Save the Children are always there.

How does Wheelsong Poetry Anthology 3 differ from Wheelsong Poetry Anthology 1 & 2?
They don’t really, they are very similar. They are published in the same way, in three formats: paperback, hardcover and Kindle ebook format on Amazon. You can buy them in places like Waterstones in the UK and Barnes and Noble in the USA, these are chain bookstores, which cover the whole country. People can go to the bookshops and buy them off the shelves or off the online stores. All three of them are the same in their mission. The reason to be published is to make money for charity, so every time a book is sold, money comes in and it goes onto the list and at the end of each six months I send a bank transfer to Save the Children with that amount of money. So far we've raised just over £2,500, that's something like about 3,000 euros. It is not a lot but we are gathering momentum.

What is your favourite poem in Nocturne?
There is a poem that stands out for me: Cardboard City. It illustrates a lot of things happening in cities all over the world and it's something that is close to my heart because I've worked with the homeless a lot, especially in my early years. Cardboard City is something that I often see whenever I'm travelling around the world.
I see homeless people and they often live under cardboard and it is a terrible situation.

I am writing some rather strange poems at the moment, poems that are out of the comfort zone. I am trying to innovate with brand new forms of poetry. I am planning to publish a new collection towards the end of this year. There are several tentative titles but I am not going to reveal which one I prefer.

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So in a way it’s my most favorite but also the most horrific poem because it tells the truth.

What role does imagery play in your books?
Imagery is vital, it's really important because a lot of us see in pictures, a lot of us have a visual kind of memory of things, you can close your eyes and you can see things in your mind. It is also a poetic device. Imagery illustrates something you couldn’t necessarily put into words. It's more like a kind of an allegory, a wider picture.

How can you describe your personal style as a poet?
I probably have two styles. I've got the machine gun style in which you are throwing lines at people, line after line after line, until they are beaten into submission. Every line rhymes. It keeps you inside the poem, you cannot escape the poem until the end. And the other kind of style is much more classical, reminiscent of Keats, Byron and Shelly.

Can you share anything about any future poems or projects that you’re planning?

Can you give any advice to someone wanting to write and publish poetry?
Never give up, just keep going. There will come a point when you will achieve what you want. If you are determined then you’ll get where you want to be. I didn’t see myself as a poet but I persevered and I was determined to get my poetry out there. It is the same with anything that you try to do in life. I was determined to become a university professor but all my friends laughed at me, they said “professor, that’s ridiculous” but I persevered and I kept learning and got all my degrees. I thoroughly enjoyed that career because it was something that people told me I couldn’t do. And when they tell me that I can’t do something I show them three ways that I can, just to prove to them that they are wrong and I am right. That’s about determination and ignoring people’s mockery or ridicule, in English we call it sheer bloody-mindedness.

Poets' Corner

There are hidden poets among our students. Eighteen-year-old Yana Staykova and Seda Syuleyman from 12th A class are eloquent poetic talents. They take pleasure in writing poems in their free time. Let’s wish them a lot of inspiration and profound wisdom for their new-coming writings.

A Symphony of Silence

Yana Staykova, 12th A grade

I passed the noise, I passed the fight
As I was walking through the night.
I found myself all wrapped in silence
With no more drama and no scandals.

I overheard the people’s thoughts,
The laughter that was sadly lost
The dreams that came at any cost
And all the hopes in sorrow tossed.

And all among those noisy views
I chose you and I’ll always choose you,
I need no help, I need no guidance
Because you hear me in the silence.

The Melody of Memories

The Path of Resilience

Seda Syuleyman, 12th A grade

Am I a mass of clay, a stepping stone?
A work in progress, never done?
A purpose great, a journey to desire?
A prototype that starts a fire?

I search for answers and I lose myself,
I want to motivate and to inspire,
I don’t need in the past to dwell,
I don’t want to be sad and tired.

I want to find my sense of self,
and take every emotion as an amplifier,
a journey of discovery I need to start,
I am someone new, a person who inspires.

Yana Staykova, 12th A grade

Sometimes I stop moving forward,
My feet pause, my heart slows,
I turn back, and look behind,
To see the path that I have left unwind.

I see my former self so clear,
A younger version, full of fear,
The world was different then, I see,
Everything looked tinted with glee.

But life has a way of moving on,
And I with it, I’ve learned to be strong,
I've learned to embrace the change,
And to look for a new way to rearrange.

And here I stand, in this place,
A little wiser, with a bolder face,
I look back and I see the past,
I see memories that will last.

Game Zone

Life Lessons We Can Learn From Video Games

Stanislav Vasilev, 12th A grade

Video games have evolved from a bunch of pixels on a screen to beautiful experiences that carry players to a whole different world. Apart from the enjoyment they bring, video games also have the power to teach valuable life lessons. Playing video games helps us learn important things like thinking carefully and not giving up, which are useful in real life. This article looks at important things we can learn from playing video games.

First of all, games can help you believe in yourself and your abilities. Your skill in any game can boost your confidence in the outside world. For instance, being good at “First-person shooter” games can help you develop a sense of teamwork, since most games are played by many people on the same team, you will need teamwork to win.

Furthermore, games help us set goals and achievements in life. A simple example of that is the rank system in some games. The rank system requires us to be a better player and improve with every single match played. Of course, sometimes you can lose games but you can still improve from a lost game. That is how it is in life as well, you have to improve in something every day. You can improve in sports, in school and everywhere in general. For instance, in boxing you can lose a match but you can still learn from the loss and figure out how to beat someone similar next time. That is how it is in games as well.
In conclusion, games are a perfect way to learn valuable life lessons like being able to work in a team or becoming a better person in general. Next time you sit down at a keyboard, remember that these pixels can teach you a lot of valuable lessons in life.

Virtual Playground

What Is the Most Appropriate Game for You?

Stanislav Vasilev, 12th A grade

In the popular world of gaming, the question everybody asks himself/herself is “What is the best game for me?” With a bunch of genres, platforms and titles available the perfect game varies on what person you are. We will show you how to choose a game you like that aligns with your preferences.

The first thing we would think of when choosing a game is “What genre should it be?”.
The genre is the most crucial step in choosing a game. We should start by identifying our favourite genre. Are you a fan of the adrenaline rush first person shooters give you or do you like using your brain to create a game plan to execute when playing strategy games? You could also be a person that just enjoys the storytelling some games can offer.

Secondly, decide on what platform you would like to play. You can use a console, a PC or you can play games on your phone (not recommended). There are many games available on each platform, so it is up to you to decide which one you want to use. (Our advice is that you should use a PC, since it is useful in many other things except gaming.) Moreover, you have to pick if you want to be a lone wolf or you want to play in a pack, in simpler terms “Singleplayer” or “Multiplayer”. There are more multiplayer games nowadays but the single player options are not bad as well. They offer amazing and unforgettable experience. It is up to you to decide what you want to experience.

Overall, the best game for you would be the one that brings you joy and satisfaction. It is always a choice of yours to decide what to play and how to play it. By understanding your preferences and doing research, you can find the PERFECT game for you and embark on a journey in the world of gaming.