A modified Langston Hughes poem for artists

I was reading the Wikipedia entry for Langston Hughes and found his poem "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain". This poem struck a cord in me in regards to being an artist trying to express my creative vision. I  reread the poem to myself in a modified form. In a form meant to inspire an artist's creativity despite what critics and the common man may think of the artist's work.

 Here is that slightly modified version based on and in all due respect to Langston Hughes and his poem "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain":


The Artist and the Mountain

Artists intend to express
their individual creations without fear or shame.
If people are pleased we are glad. If they are not,
it doesn't matter. We know our creations are beautiful. And ugly, too.
The tom-tom cries, and the tom-tom laughs. If artists
are pleased we are glad. If they are not, their displeasure
doesn't matter either. We build our temples for tomorrow,
strong as we know how, and we stand on top of the mountain
free within ourselves.