It was absolutely a compliment. I write my syllabic forms of poetry, for which I have discovered an unexpected knack, with an intellectual and/or spiritual message, as a companion to an essay or vice versa. Here is my latest example of which I am very proud. https://medium.com/the-pom/dizain-of-suicide-72bcde4dc8d8. You write with what I always viewed as a poetic voice--poems that would make a woman swoon. That I envision being read in a coffee house in Greenwich Village in the 60's, or on a liberal arts campus, sweeping women off their feet.