Sultan opens Sharjah Nabati Poetry House

Sharjah, Feb 19, 2009 (WAM) - H. H. Dr Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, expressed yesterday his hope that the new Sharjah Nabati Poetry Centre would provide an ideal platform for all UAE poets.
Sheikh Sultan, who opened the centre today, met a group of UAE, Gulf and Arab poets and exchanged with them views on a host of poetic.
Sheikh Sultan told the attendees that ''He is interested in poetry and watching Nabati poetry on TV and radio programmes regularly. He said the centre was built to serve present and future generations.
He demanded the centre officials to prepare valuable qualitative programmes to promote this genre of poetry and urged poets to use the local dialect, which he said has a rich lexicon.
Sheikh Sultan announced that he was preparing to publish a volume on the poems of the late Sheikh Sultan bin Saqr Al Qasimi.
He added that the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan was not only a great Nabati poet but also a penchant lover and critic of Nabati poetry.
He said a festival for Nabati poetry would be staged to promote and document this school of poetic creativity.