Watch Oscar's Speech and Read His Poetry
Oscar Anderson's speech "No One On The Sidelines: Free Expression For All" as a Young Expert on Free Expression at the World Expression Forum in Lillehammer, Norway, June 2025
Poetry
Oscar's poems: See Through the Wheelchair and The Wheels of People Who Were Left Behind
The Wheels of People Who Were Left Behind
We walked our lives alone
Some taken out of mercy
Or abandoned without a home
*
People we loved betrayed us
Thought we were incomplete
Kept us begging for food and coin
lying in the filth of a city backstreet
*
While some were more comfortable than others
It doesn’t mean we lived full lives
Confined to our estates and bedchambers
Unfit to be called parents, husbands or wives
*
Myths and stories were made up about us
Though not in the most flattering kind
From fairies that were believed to replace us
To beasts that were believed to break people’s mind
*
Then when wars broke out in certain countries
Men were made to fight
But when they came back as heroes
They finally understood our plight
Little by little, some places have improved
But stereotypes and negative attitudes remain
And In continents like Africa and Asia, we’re still being abused
*
While the east is looking at catching up
With the rest of the global powers that be
We still see the west treat us like forgotten property
But in the mist of darkness, we see warriors of light
For those who are forgotten on planes and seeking employability
They wish to fight
*
We are the people the world never loved
But the future remains anew
For we are the wheels of people who were left behind
And we are watching you
*
So bloom and grow
Love and show
You still have a life to fulfil
To live a life of adventure and glory
Or a satisfying day at the till
See Through the Wheelchair
For some reason, people used to glare at me
But I don’t know why
Maybe because of my wonky body or the fact that I’m stuck in a wheelchair
The problem is that no one asks me mainly due to fear
The fear of being rude and offensive but I just wanna be talked to
Disabled people also have lives and voices, you know
They laugh, cry and feel pain, just like you do
But the most important thing they do is that they live their lives to the fullest
So I implore you
Please, see through the wheelchair and take care of the boy inside
Biography
I’m 23 years old and I am a lot of things, a traveler, a dreamer, a mythology nerd , an aspiring author and poet. As an activist I was awarded an MBE and a Diana award for my charity work, being named an Ambassador at One Young World and a Young Expert on Free Expression at WEXFO. I have cerebral palsy which was caused by a condition called Kernicterus which is caused by untreated jaundice and is the basis of my charity work.
I got into poetry when I was around 15 years old, even though I had studied it throughout my mainstream education, I never really understood it up until that point. I was studying for my English literature GCSE exam and I was studying a poem by Imtiaz Dharker called Living Space, which is based on the slums of Mumbai and the kind of conditions that people have to endure on a daily basis. My English teacher at the time said something that really whacked the final nail in the coffin when it came to me wanting to start a writing career, which was “some poets write , not only to express themselves but to address social issues. “ And I was like, “ huh, I never really thought about poetry that way before. Since I now am considered an activist, maybe I should give it a try.”
So I wrote my first poem called See through the wheelchair. And people around me really liked it so I started writing more and more poems and just fell in love with it over time . The reason why I love poetry is because it allows me to explore different aspects of myself and the world beyond in a way that you can’t simply say by talking to someone about it without making yourself sound weird. Plus, what I also like to do with my poetry is incorporate different elements and aspects from media that I like and weave them into the themes that I’m exploring , such as movies, tv shows and mythology from around the world.
