The Cost of Staying

Living in the In-Between

The Cost of Staying is a collection of poetry about surviving when surviving is the hardest thing you've ever had to do.

These poems explore grief, trauma, mental illness, chronic pain, identity, love, loss, and the quiet cost of continuing to exist when every day feels like a battle.

This is not a chronological story. It is a journey through emotions rather than events-a collection that follows the path from confusion, through grief, to the fragile act of staying.

Some poems were written in the middle of the storm.

Others were written after it had passed.

Together, they ask one question:

What does it cost to keep staying?

Content Note: This collection contains themes of grief, trauma, suicidal thoughts, mental illness, chronic illness, and emotional abuse that some readers may find distressing.