To Love Loss
Cydney Edwards
April 1, 2022
Time to create healthy and positive associations with grief
Source Material:
- “Sweet Daddy” by Patricia Smith
Warm-up:
- Make a list of 10 things or people you lose/have lost(can be an object like toothpaste or a person like my mother)
- Take half of those and write what it feels like to lose those things/that person
- Take one and write down a fake memory with that thing. ( ie. an adventure you went on with your keys, even though in reality they were lost)
- what do you want to give them?
Prompt: Write a poem in tribute to that person or thing you’ve lost. Feel free to title it “Sweet” like Patricia Smith does
(I challenge you all to share it with someone who may share your same feelings)
Some added support: Think about what age the person or object was, or what age you were when they were lost, your best real memory with them, what tastes, smells, feelings, you associate there
Cydney Edwards
Cydney Edwards (she/her) is a poet, performer, actress, director and educator from the Southside of Chicago. She joined the poetry community in 7th grade turning in original work for the annual story submission, Young Authors, which proved to be one of the most integral decisions to her poetry career. She first represented Chicago at Brave New Voices poetry festival in 2006, and has continued to serve in a multitude of roles throughout the 24 year history of the festival., including most recently as Festival Co Director. As an alum of Young Chicago Authors, Chicago Debates Kuumba Lynx and also First Wave, she has studied Hip Hop arts and poetry under a number of pedagogies. In 2010, she was a member of the First Wave touring ensemble that represented the US at Contacting the World. Now, Cydney serves as Program Director of the Miami-Dade Urban Debate League and understands the intersectionality of identity, debate and poetry and is excited to begin at YCA as Education Associate.