Hmm I like the subject, the ideas. I agree with Zara that artists tend to need pain. They almost crave it as an artistic spark.
I also think that it seems to lack direction. It meanders from idea to idea with not much sense of where it is headed.
The last line is good - I really like that a lot.
Some of the lines breaks don't seem right to me. I've been writing this alot lately and it may just be my own mind!
'The first child was born wailing
To forever anguish trapped under
The crippling scales of balance'
definitely feels wrong to me. I can't read it while making any sense out of it. It doesn't read nicely. Maybe you don't like using punctuation (as I know some poets don't) but when I read it the lack of punctuation makes this part difficult.
'The soul of a true artist is damaged
By discouragement and then discarded
By the ungentle hands of a defeatist mind'
would read better to me as two lines, so would the other stanza I've picked out now I think about it. If you want to keep the three-line structure then that's fine but try reading it yourself and see what you think.
I get a mixed meaning from this poem, but I think what you are pointing out that there is pain for people who are artists. I agree with that. Whether that artist be an author, poet, painter, or so on, there is always pain. Some of the greatest pieces are inspire from pain.
The first part I think I get as well, but I'm not entirely certain...
You have written a great piece that will have readers working over its meaning for some time. This is a poem that will really make people think.
I like it a lot and think that it is a job well done!
Submission Name: Grown Promise 
