a criticism?

So the real Creative Writing class started today. As one of my readers knows, I was twitching and exacerbating throughout the whole class, impatient for my turn to present a poem for the first time this year. I was thinking of how funny it was that exactly one year ago in the same course I was huddling in a corner afraid of being called on to read, but now I am practically jumping out of my seat yelling "PICK ME! PICK MEEE!!!"

Ooooh, it is going to be a good class. There are more people in the class this year than last year who have decided & firm opinions and will express them whenever the chance arises. Chelsea gave me a decided criticism and at first I wasn't sure about it - because I am known for hating & fearing criticism. But I am glad that she did give her critique in the class and later we talked about our poems at lunch.

I thought about it - she suggested that I make the symbols less cryptic basically. At first I thought no! because I love my dear brood of cryptic metaphors. And am afraid of blank obviousness in poetry because it is so boring to me. But I wonder if it is possible to overdo metaphor? I don't know. I love making things cryptic because it makes the poems MORE FUN. Instead of just being done with them in one scan, the reader has to make a little devotion to them. And crypticism gives so much more opportunity for twisting language, which is basically my love. I really dislike things in literature to be stated plainly, especially in poetry, because it is so boring. No scope for imagination.

But there was a very important point in the suggestion. Sometimes [as classmates doubtless know] I make things so cryptic that they are hardly comprehensible at all to the reader - maybe. But I like reading something and not being able to explain it but understanding it in a way that requires no words, and I like writing to produce a reaction like that too. People [ex., mogg today] tell me that after reading a poem of mine they feel that way and I am very very glad of that because it's exactly the thing I'm going for.

I can tell this is going to be a semester where many criticisms will probably happen. I must simply realize that a criticism, which I have thought in past, is not a poisoned arrow aimed straight at my heart at all but is most of the time rather a kind suggestion, especially like today, when the critique was given by a friend. Often my imagination runs away with me and I imagine that I am all set, that my style of writing is not still full of errors and missteps, but to take criticism I must realize that as a writer I am in fact only at the beginning, really.

In an endeavor to recieve further opinion, I am curious to know what my [two] readers think. Is my style too cryptic? And is its excessive secrecy a good or bad thing or somewhere in between? Feel free to expound on your points. :D