When he handed me his poetry collection (From Nothingness), asking me to review it and hoping I would write a few lines for its introduction, my memory took me back to our first meeting two years ago. On that day, he recited verses that, despite some metrical flaws, could not hide a talent that foretold a poet of future significance in the literary world. While talent is a gift from God, nurturing and refining it requires the possessor to make it the focus of their interests and the orbit of their life. For Yamen Khalil, it was exactly as it should be.

In a remarkably short period, the poet mastered the language, taking the pre-Islamic poetic model as an example to follow. He delved into the depths of the poem—its language, expression, eloquence, and imagery—uncovering its worlds and understanding its secrets. He then infused it with his own spirit and experience, creating a poetic text that stands on the ruins of the past in its form while sailing into the present in its content.

I am not here to offer praise or critique, nor to analyze; the text is in the hands of the readers, and it is for them to judge. They alone grant the poet passage into their worlds or deny him that grace. However, I am here to present a unique model of a poet who refused weakness, did not settle for comfort, and did not surrender to wishful thinking. He stood at the gate of his dream, knowing that arrival requires an unyielding will and relentless determination. He demolished the walls of the impossible with the fist of will and ascended the throne of his poem, declaring that whoever does not pour their heartbeat into their poetry does not deserve to live in its enchanting worlds.

This is (From Nothingness), a collection of poetry that transports you to the golden age of Arabic poetry. While the poems possess all the elements of strength, it will not stop you from whispering in the poet's ear as you read, "Come closer to me, and break the barriers of the old language that sometimes alienated me from your poems... so they can be for me... or rather, so they can be me."

* Poet Yasser Al-Aqra'

Weight: 0.5 kg
Dimensions: 14 × 20 cm