+Advice

Meanwhile,

all your work was not wasted.

See,

you wouldn't have understood me

before.

What's more,

you already knew these things,

such as; simple sayings, adage, axioms
and cliches, articles of accessory

seemed so gaudy, and yet
tried. 

Unlike any new advice such as

subtle suggestions, elbows 
and a nudge,
not this way, we learn as we
make progress. 
You

have this one life, one chance, one

You

must do what you love

Now.

Ask.

Ask not for permission, 
don't wait for approval 
don't doubt
empty pockets have holes.

Ask without question what is
Best. One foot at a

Time, time

is watching you
while you have an eye on it.

This time 
is yours, borrowed.

Counting the friendly hour,

you

count on hands

and wonder what it all

amounts to.

Like wilting exclamation marks,

on a petrified Dali branch,
there was always the expression 
and what it meant
to you. 

Image of painting by Honoré Daumier [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons, Advice to a Young Artist (1865-68).
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot [1796-1875], Paris; (his estate sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, part III, 7-9 June 1875, no. 665); purchased by Arthur Stevens.[1] Guillotin, Paris, by 1901. Adolphe A. Tavernier, Paris, by 1901.[2] [Ernest?] Cronier, by 1904. Goerg [or Georg], Reims, by 1905. A. Bergeaud, Paris, in 1910.[3] (Alex Reid & Lefèvre, Ltd., Glasgow and London), by 1927; sold to D.W.T. Cargill [1872-1939], Glasgow. (M. Knoedler & Co., New York), by 1928.[4] (Galerie Étienne Bignou, New York); sold 1941 to Duncan Phillips [1886-1966], Washington, D.C.; gift 1941 to NGA.