Benevolence!

In Benevolence!, his most personal poetry collection yet, Ray Shabir presents poems written over the course of three years. Navigating heartbreak, grief, body horror, friendship, family, yearning, and, most importantly, self-forgiveness, his work reflects a person who refuses to be an innocent bystander in the life that unfolds before him. Often irreverent, sometimes pensive, but always unflinchingly honest, Ray is unafraid to declare love as fiercely as he questions it. Like a calm that washes over the shore after the wave crashes, Benevolence! offers a moment of clarity---a reckoning with pain, tenderness, and survival. It is a book for those who crave genuine connection in an increasingly alienating world.