Writing his own future
Jordanian graduate explores his creative side with poetry as well as his engineering discipline. The 23-year-old will have a book of his poems published next year, Rezan Oueiti reports
AJMAN // Skillfully engineering words as well as mechanics is what drives one Jordanian expat’s passions.
The 23- year- old graduated from American University of Sharjah in July and is to become a published poet.
Ahmad Al Akhras has written about 300 poems and more than 50 of them will be published next year by Sharjah Department of Culture and Information under the title The Features’ Tree.
“The first chapter is about love and titled I Swear to the N, the second is Beyond the Metaphor and is about sentiment and subjectivity, and the last is philosophical and entitled What Spike did not Say,” Mr Al Akhras said.
“I wanted readers to create their own image while reading it, so each person comes out with a different experience of reading the same book.”
Mr Al Akhras has almost been published six times before but has always backed out.
“Since 2010, I was thinking about publication,” he said.
“I kept postponing it because I wanted my first collection to leave a very strong impression that makes readers want my second one,” he said.
His love of words started in sixth grade, when he developed a passion for Arabic.
“I started reading novels, poetry and stories,” he said.
He wrote his first poem at the age of 14.
“When I was in middle school and in grade nine, I saw a girl riding the school bus and I unconsciously wrote a poem about her beauty,” he said.
“From that time, I continued writing secretly for three years without showing anyone what I was doing.”
He then began taking part in competitions.
“My family and friends did not take my talent seriously un- til I participated in the Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed Al Maktoum Award in 2010,” he said.
“I wrote a poem consisting of 20 verses and got first place.
“After it, I participated in the Writers Union and presented a poetry evening, which was the first time I read poetry in front of an audience.”
By 2011, Mr Al Akhras’s talent started getting noticed.
“After that, in 2013, I appeared on Abu Dhabi TV channel in the fifth season of the Prince of Poets,” he said.
“At the age of 20, I was the youngest participant among 20 poets.
“Participation in the programme increased my reputation across the Arab world as well as my followers on my Facebook account.”
He has more than 1,700 followers on Facebook.