LYSS CYPHER

“Well Spring: Dreaming Community Care” {is} a love letter to the family-community I grew up in. After my father died, myself and my
siblings were raised by our mother in collaboration with my grandparents and my neighbors. Caring for each other, as I was shown and taught,
was as essential a part of daily life as eating or sleeping.
The artificial boundaries of the nuclear family blurred where care felt abundant, and despite my grief, I was constantly surrounded by people who offered support in whatever ways they could - in home-cooked meals, a conversational walk in the woods, a community bonfire and pig roast. Today, I carry the support of my upbringing each and every day.
Through the loneliest times within the forced isolation of capitalism and individualism, there is always the memory and the dream of care alongside the softness of its liberation. I wanted to create a piece where care became a wellspring of wildflowers - constantly replenished,
thriving, and lush - to capture this feeling.

Lyss Cypher (any pronouns) is a poet-artist-weightlifter-wanderer. They are a lifelong learner of disability justice, creative resistance, and trauma-informed weightlifting, currently working in popular education and personal training. On a given day, you could find Lyss at a goth night or punk show, wandering in the cemetery with a black coffee topped with cake spice, or befriending the neighborhood birds. You can find their work on Substack at lysscypher.substack.com or on Bluesky @lysscypher.bsky.social.