Bareoot Artist, Lily Yeh

Hello Mid-January!

Another arctic blast is chilling things down in my little part of the world...and here I am trying to get to know my OLW for '25, barefoot. Hmmmmmm.

I've had to turn to google for some searching of places where barefoot might not necessarily mean warm enough to remove one's shoes. Hmmmmm

Lily Yeh calls herself a Barefoot Artist. She gave a TedTalk about her work in April of '24.

https://www.ted.com/talks/lily_yeh_how_art_transforms_brokenness_into_beauty?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare

I imagine the term 'barefoot' comes from the Chinese description of someone with little training and few professional resources going out into the countryside to help people that have very little. Ms. Yeh's talk was fascinating and I'm so glad I listened to her.

After listening to the talk, I downloaded the transcript and sculpted poetic lines from it. I'm not sure it's a poem...but I like how it sounds and leads me to a new understanding of barefoot.

Flee this World

place home in
something essential
light
small
children’s laughter
joy

The world found broken
missing wisdom
compassion
endurance

Barefoot reality
walks in silence
safekeeping
the bone chamber
loved ones home

Dandelion School
perfect for color, joy
life, exaltation and happiness

A barefoot artist
creates with broken canvases
people’s stories the palette.
Fire in a winter’s night
yearns for this
now more than ever.
Embrace the broken
into beauty.

Words found by Linda Mitchell 1/17/25

Thank you, Tricia Stohr-Hunt for hosting this week's Poetry Friday round-up at The Miss Rhumphius Effect.