Valery Shevchenko is a modern poet, prose writer, director, screenwriter. Author of several collections of poetry and short prose. The book “Compassion” includes new poems, as well as selected poems created at different times since the early 90s of the last century. Some of them were published earlier, including in the collection “Pandora”, in the book “Milestones of Pilgrimage”, but most of the poems are published for the first time. The poet's poems are very personal, sincere, bright, and sensitive. Shevchenko’s beautiful poetic formulas, which contain great intellectual and emotional content, provide great aesthetic satisfaction. His poetry helps to understand the spiritual world and the contradictory experiences of the author and people living at the turn of the century.