Poem as prayer

I love poetry! Here's a great one I read today...

"Song" (by Adrienne Rich)
You're wondering if I'm lonely:
OK then, yes, I'm lonely
as a plane rides lonely and level
on its radio beam, aiming
across the Rockies
for the blue-strung aisles
of an airfield on the ocean.

You want to ask, am I lonely?
Well, of course, lonely
as a woman driving across country
day after day, leaving behind
mile after mile
little towns she might have stopped
and lived and died in, lonely

If I'm lonely
it must be the loneliness
of waking first, of breathing
dawn's first cold breath on the city
of being the one awake
in a house wrapped in sleep

If I'm lonely
it's with the rowboat ice-fast on the shore
in the last red light of the year
that knows what it is, that knows it's neither
ice nor mud nor winter light
but wood, with a gift for burning.

Is a compliment a compliment?

I'm not good at accepting unexpected compliments, compliments that point to an undesirable truth, or back-handed compliments. They're awkward. And while it would be much easier to say, "thank you" and walk away, I feel compelled to interpret them and even argue with the giver. Recent such words have suggested that I might be a great children's minister, my sermons are not from the internet, and I've grown so much (professionally speaking). Each of these is a nice idea, but none of them were in aggreement with my current viewpoint. Each of these seemed to be spoken as a trying-to-point-me-in-a-new-direction kind of way. And if that is the case, are these actually compliments? If the speaker is trying to change someone, is it really a compliment?