With difficulties expressing emotions, young writer turned to poetry

Samir Mohamed, 17, is a physics student at the University of Guyana (UG). His passion for physics stems, in part, from the field’s ability to explore great unknowns.

But he has a passion for something else that also helps him explain those great unknowns – though not necessarily the unknowns of the universe like physics helps to explain.

“…I have a problem expressing my emotions to people, so I found a good compromise was using poetry to be able to express myself.

“It can be very unhealthy to bottle up your emotions,” Mohamed told the News Room during a recent interview.

The young poet started writing about two years ago during the COVID-19 pandemic but the need to find an outlet to adequately express himself was great.

So, he started writing poetry and fiction. “And I supposed the habit stuck around,” he said.

But he didn’t stop there. He got into writing and expressing himself increasingly. And when the distinguished Guyana Prize for Literature made its return several months ago, he entered two of his pieces.

Turns out, young Mohamed has a knack for writing well enough to impress the judges in not one, but two categories. He was judged the best male youth writer in both the poetry and fiction categories.

That meant, he placed himself on the distinguished list of Guyana Prize awardees.

“I put a lot of hard work and effort into those two works. Doing them was a joy for me because I got to express myself in a different kind of light.

“Normally, when I write, it’s usually to express myself on how I feel on something in particular (but) I was writing for some greater good that I didn’t understand yet,” Mohamed shared.

To some extent, he isn’t quite certain about what the greater good fuelling his poetry is. But he intends to stick with it, and physics, to find that out.

“…poetry, or anything in the poetic arts, is very unpredictable but what I am hoping for is to inspire some amount of change,” he said simply.

Now, he hopes that more young people can write and use the literary arts to express themselves. He believes they will be better off if they do.