Interesting that you didn't MPP meter this essay. Did it reach more people this way? An alternative that I have only employed a couple of times is to put a friend's link at the top of the story.

Everything you say and ask here is spot on. I'm an odd bird when it comes to poetry. I honestly have to say that while I thoroughly enjoy creating in my lane of poetry, which I consider more intellectual than poetic (I'm usually not writing poetry with flourishing images and metaphors), I enjoy reading essays much more than poetry. I've gone so far as to confide to one friend/poet on Medium, I'm a poet who doesn't like poetry. I loyally read a few creators on Medium (you, Claire, Anthi, Joseph Lieungh, jules, Benighted) but I don't generally read in the topic.

PS: I just came back because Jodie Helm just left a great comment in my recent poem that said better what I tried to say above. Jodie said, "Really good. People think of poetry as all flowers and rainbows, but this is a thinking piece. I had to let it percolate a bit." Here's the poem: https://medium.com/write-under-the-moon/selling-sucess-and-enlightenment-76e8352ad62f