The Elitism in Me, Part II

As I was leaving class after my poetry final, the Poetry Professor and I had a short talk. He told me to "keep writing."

I believe he's under the mistaken impression (one I have never bothered to correct) that I write poetry all the time, that it's a driving, all-encompassing goal that I have. I feel my talents best lie with writing creative nonfiction, but as I explained to the English instructor during an email exchange, people are more tolerant of creative use of language in a poem than in prose, for reasons I don't understand. In fact, the Poetry Professor was very interesting in learning the meaning behind my poems, and most of the time, he extrapolated this by himself. But if he didn't connect with some line, he automatically was curious about it. I don't believe I've had this same reaction when writing prose. If people don't understand something in a nonfiction essay, they immediately assume that they should understand it, and if they don't, then it's the writer's fault for making the sentence (or sentences) vague and confusing. Whereas with poetry, if a reader doesn't comprehend a line or a couple of lines, he/she blames him/herself.

My prose should have the same effect as my poetry, that it leads readers down a path of discovery--for themselves, as well as for me. I got into this argument with the English instructor (which I lost, by the way because he teaches the class, not I) of why do we need thesis statements when the whole fucking paper is about the thesis statement? Do you really need to spell it out for people when it should be clear by the essay as a whole? I found it to be slightly insulting, not only to me, but also to the reader that thesis statements were even needed in a well-written paper. The English instructor warned me that not writing a thesis statement might cost me an A in the future since this is what professors expect and desire. Since the man has written more college-level papers than I have, I conceded.