I’ve always dreamed of a poetry scene in the UAE. Not a fleeting stage but an immortal book, to hold our painted words and bring them to the hands of those who would read them. I myself write but I didn’t imagine this book with me alone. I wanted it to express a multitude of emotions, ideas and expressions. That’s when I started looking for other poets to contribute to this book. It started with a small twitter group consisting of me, Zayed and A.Y.A. It slowly grew to seven poets. We compiled our poetry into the book you are holding right now, Compendium.