The first time I died, I felt fireworks shoot down my legs and I could taste their colors: red like your heart before it stopped and turned gray, golden green like your eyes.

I recently had the opportunity to speak with Tethered by Letters’ founder and CEO, Dani Hedlund.

I choose to live in pain. Let me tell you why.

Wrapped in swansdown and silk, I was becoming smaller and smaller in your hand.

So to Speak strives to combat such rhetoric, which is why we asked our brilliant readers, friends, and colleagues to send us material on this topic that educates and inspires.

This piece is extracted from a collection of collage-poems called TENDER THE NIGHT. The collection takes its title from a famous novel, with a notable redaction.