Artists and Advocates

Artists need advocates
in the face of no evidence.
Someone to see greatness
in the pit of self doubt.
All encouragement needs
to be supportive and positive.

Critics come by the dozen,
those who are indifferent
are in the thousands,
but advocates point to the future
and speak to the artists’ fears.
They savor significance of every
brush stroke and poetic line,
giving the artist strength to carry on.

When advocates become too busy,
or get too tired of all the misses,
when they can no longer deal
with the grief and despair,
it is time to let them go and find another
for art flourishes in fertile ground
and greatness emerges from the belief
of one person in the potential of another.